Little used in Norway – E24
Lockout has historically been uncommon in Norwegian working life and is referred to as a means of enforcing a compulsory wage board.
Lockout is a legal tool that the employer can resort to in a labor dispute.
In the event of a lockout, the employer refuses the employees to perform their job. NFO has already taken out 106 of its approximately 500 aircraft technicians on strike.
If the parties do not become the only ones in the next few days, the lockout will take effect on Sunday night and the remaining flight technicians in NFO will be forced to stop the work.
On Thursday evening, the parties are in mediation with the national mediator, and the chief negotiator for the aircraft technicians has stated that he expects a solution on Friday.
Canceled flights
The aircraft technician strike that started on Saturday morning has already led to many canceled flights.
If the lockout takes effect, 20 aircraft technicians from Babcock, which operates the air ambulance aircraft, will also be affected. It will endanger life and health and therefore the state will in all probability intervene and stop the conflict with the compulsory wage board. This means that the state intervenes and ends the strike.
Lockout is not widespread in Norway
Although lockout is a legal tool, it has not been widespread in Norway in recent times, Seip explains:
– Lockout was widely used in the early 1900s, but has been less used in the post-war period. The last time a Norwegian employers’ association had an active lockout was in 1986.
The Norwegian Employers’ Association then took a lockout that affected more than 100,000 organized employees in LO. The lockout ended after a week and the director, Pål Kråby, had to resign.
– It was an unsuccessful campaign for the employer side and after this no active lockout has been used.
In 2012, workers at oil and gas installations in the North Sea went on strike for, among other things, better pension conditions. After 12 days, the Norwegian Oil Industry Association announced a lockout. This could have resulted in a complete halt on the Norwegian shelf, but just before implementation, the state intervened with a compulsory wage board.
Powerful action
Åsmund Seip supports in full lockout is a powerful measure:
– The warning to NHO is a full lockout, they will exclude everyone who is organized in NFO, ie a full lockout. It is a relatively powerful measure.
– What does NHO want to achieve by announcing the lockout?
– I think that NHO is doing this to get the negotiations started, but at the same time they also know that if they do not reach an agreement, it is quick that the situation becomes such that the state must intervene with a forced wage board, Seip says before elaborating further:
– Part of the dynamic is that when the employer side goes to a full lockout, then in certain industries there is a great chance that it can pose a danger to life and health. Then the state would like to intervene in labor disputes.
Large cracks
NFO wants a wage increase of 17 percent. NHO has stated that this is a completely unrealistic requirement and points out that the limit on this year’s wage settlement is 3.7 per cent.
NFO is an independent organization, in contrast to unions that are part of larger employee organizations. Åsmund Seip believes it can have an impact on the requirements they set.
Larger employee associations usually take several groups into account and must therefore moderate their requirements. LO, as the main organization, probably would not have made such high demands on its unions.
From the outside, this seems to be a very high wage demand from the NFO’s side, he demands.
The Compulsory Wages Board is in NHO’s favor
Seip believes it is important for NFO to avoid a forced wage board.
In the case of a compulsory wage board, the National Wages Board will in its decision look at what other groups in the same collective bargaining area have received. And most likely give the strikers, NFO, the same as the others, says Seip.
This is the reason why the NFO has taken out a smaller number on strike. NFO has also announced that they will apply for a dispensation from lockout for aircraft mechanics in these groups:
- All aircraft technicians in Babcock Scandinavia Engineering
- Aircraft technicians working with Medevac at SAS
- Aircraft technicians needed to plan ambulance transport in northern Norway
Åsmund Seip explains that it is common to apply for exemptions in labor disputes, but that this is usually something the employer side does.
– It is unusual for the employee side to apply for this, as we see in this case.
Director of NHO Aviation, Torbjørn Lothe, stated on Wednesday that they have not received any application, but we will consider such an application they receive it.
Nor can Seip at NHO choose to grant the application.
– Both going to the lockout and refraining from granting exemptions are tools that the employer side can use to influence the labor struggle.