On Monday, more than 1,000 employees of private daycare centers go on strike. Therese Knædal and her son Oscar (2) both have to stay home on Monday due to the asylum strike.
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– No, it doesn’t work, Knædal says about everyday life now there will be a kindergarten strike. His son Oscar goes as usual to Espira Tjøsvoll kindergarten in Karmøy. But on Monday he has to stay home.
– He loves going to kindergarten and thinks it’s absolutely fantastic, and we notice that if he goes home a lot he gets a little bored, says Knædal.
The dispute revolves around the question of pensions, where the dependent party believes, among other things, that he has been promised the payment of the life pension in addition to the occupational pension through the Joint Arrangement for Contractual Pension (AFP), which the employer work rejects.
On Saturday night the mediation between the Trade Union, the Education Association and Delta on the one hand, and the National Association of Private Nurseries (PBL) on the other, was interrupted.
- As a result, 1,007 employees in 112 private nurseries in Oslo, Østfold, Trøndelag and Vestlandet will go on strike on Monday.
- PBL employees have to pay more for retirement, but the Education Association says they still get a worse pension. Furthermore, the Education Association points out that PBL receives a pension benefit from the state, which in theory should cover pension costs.
- PBL said the requirements will be very expensive and extensive over an economically demanding period.
Knædal must take unpaid leave from his plank job for Seam to be home with his son while the strike is underway.
– I depend on someone to take care of my child so that I can go to work and earn money so that everything runs smoothly. With rising prices for electricity, groceries, and rising interest rates, it doesn’t exactly help closing the nursery, he says.
He still understands that the kindergarten employees are on strike, but he hopes it won’t last long.
I have to close the kindergarten
– Now there is a strike, so now it’s closed, says coach Cathrine Munthe Strømmen at Karmøy kindergarten.
It’s an offer for children who have resources, Strømmen clarifies. But with 24 employees on strike, she has only 1.4 man years left.
– Then it’s not easy to run a daycare, he says.
She sighs heavily into the phone when VG asks her what she thinks of the strike.
– First of all, I think it is stupid that a solution has not been reached. But then I realize it’s a strike. Because getting a good pension and a good regime is important, she says.
– On the other hand, I hope it doesn’t last long. I think of all those who should have been in daycare, of those in need of routine, and I think of what it does to the parents who have to stay at home. Many have to take an unpaid break and worry about the economy. So there’s an aftertaste here, she says.
Marius Iversen, who is PBL’s director of communications and community relations, writes in an email to VG that it is very regrettable that there is a strike in kindergartens from tomorrow.
– Good and open nurseries are incredibly important to children, families and society – and it is sad that from tomorrow there will be many daycare centers that cannot have a normal supply, writes Iversen.
The Swedish Association for Education: – Reasonable requirements
Education Association leader Steffen Handal says there is a great willingness to strike among employees of private kindergartens. Recently, they held a members meeting – certainly a digital meeting on Zoom – with over 1,000 attendees, an unusually large turnout, according to Handal. Pensions are an important issue for their members.
– I think it is absolutely incredible that we have to strike to get the same rights that employees of other kindergartens already have. We have entirely reasonable requests, she says.
Handal says it is the public funds that have been earmarked for this very purpose, which should go towards a decent retirement.
– It is a female-dominated profession, which is tough, as many become disabled prematurely and are not even close to reaching normal retirement age. I think it’s absolutely amazing that we’re not getting any traction, she says.
Recently, Handal was the face of a protracted teachers’ strike. Like the teachers’ strike, the kindergarten strike affects families with young children who have been through a pandemic, with partially reduced learning opportunities and generally difficult times.
But Handal hopes to understand that he will go back on strike.
– I just have to apologize and hope that they understand that this is an important battle, also for the future of the employees who are responsible for their children every day. It is important for private daycare centers to be able to attract labor, so that they are able to offer the offer that parents want, she says.
“Gold Standard”
Iversen and PBL believe the unions made unrealistic demands in the wage agreement.
– The requirements would send many hundreds of private nurseries to the bankruptcy court. In a normal transaction, at the same level as the KS transaction, there would have been NOK 230 million in “fresh money” to be distributed in the PBL transaction. In addition, the unions have come up with a combined package of demands that would have cost our nursery members NOK 1.6 billion in increased costs, writes Marius Iversen in PBL, before claiming that the unions are blackmailing the pension scheme for nursery workers. PBL nest:
– It has only been three years since the parties agreed on a new and forward-looking agreement that both we and the trade unions have been very satisfied with. They themselves have called the PBL asylum pension the “gold standard” in the private sector. PBL currently has a pension scheme, including AFP, which is generally very good for employees, and we will have it in the future as well. But that doesn’t mean we can satisfy all their wishes, regardless of their price, he concludes.
