Former mediator Reidar Webster is dead – NRK Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
– We have received the sad message that former mediator Reidar Webster has passed away. Webster remembers as a very skilled mediator and was a unique bridge builder between the parties in working life. Our thoughts go to the family in this difficult time, the Ombudsman writes on his website.
Has led the office the longest
Reidar Webster was Norway’s mediator from 1988 to 2004 and is the one who has led the office the longest.
When NTB interviewed him in his last year as mediator, he reckoned that this year’s wage negotiations would be very demanding.
When asked about the different mediation deadlines, he demands that there were minimum deadlines and that the mediation could extend. He himself had not booked an Easter holiday.
– Mediation is a lot about improvisation. It is in the nature of things that things happen at the moment. If you have made fixed plans in advance, you will come out pretty bad. I take life as it comes, then I get to jump from rock to rock as I usually do, Webster said.
Led more than a thousand mediations
Webster had a master’s degree in law. at the University of Oslo. He became bureau chief in the Ministry of Local Government and Labor in 1972 and was assistant mediator in the period 1978–1988.
Reidar Webster led more than a thousand mediations during the collective bargaining agreements between 1978 and 2004.