End of the strike in kindergartens

RIKSMEKLEREN (VG) The strike of private nurseries is over. After a month-long strike, the parties reached a settlement at the Riksmekleren on Wednesday morning.

VG updates the case

– Kindergartens will reopen tomorrow. The smartest thing is to get everyone back to work then, the union’s Anne Green Nilsen tells VG.

He believes that the agreement reached for the pension and AFP is satisfactory.

– It’s a day of relief. Fantastic. Now parents can send their children to kindergarten again from Thursday, says Jørn Tommy Schjelderup from the employers’ side at PBL. -In the end we found a compromise with the good help of the national ombudsman, he adds.

Yesterday afternoon’s mediation lasted a total of 18 hours. The parties emerged from mediation Wednesday morning with broad smiles.

– Fixed early in the morning

Riksmekler Mats Ruland describes the mediation of the last 24 hours as challenging.

– The parties were determined to terminate the mediation. The parties had good contributions. Then we had some input which means we found the solution early in the morning. It will be good to get some sleep now, says Ruland.

Terje Skyvulstad of the Education Association also points out that the salary settlement is included in the result.

– We are also satisfied with that result. The most important thing was to get an AFP for life. We fixed it. This whole strike is about the fact that we have a fair and good pension for our members in private kindergartens. We did it, blacksmith.

– What would you say to parents who have been affected by it?

– It was a difficult time for them. We were sorry for that. But a strike goes to the third person. The nurseries are open again tomorrow. Then the children can go back there, replies Skyvulstad, who has negotiated on behalf of the kindergarten teachers – and who is the union’s vice president.

His counterpart, PBL director Schjelderup, says the additional costs for the pension contract demanded by employees are being looked at with new eyes.

– Of course it has a cost. A lot had to be cleared off the street. With the help of the Ombudsman, we have found a sustainable solution that guarantees employees AFP in combination with the service pension, the PBL director tells VG.

Anne Green Nilsen from the union, which organizes many kindergarten employees, is pleased:

– We have had an AFP in place since 1 January 2025. It is in line with our core requirement. And the result is a corresponding public pension for work in municipal kindergartens, says the union representative.

In the compromise in the mediation, the employees have to pay in retirement a little longer than initially requested by the workers’ organizations.

The solution on Wednesday at the Riksmekleren will reach a preliminary vote among union members.

From 15:00 on Tuesday afternoon and throughout the evening and into the night until Wednesday, the mediation took place on the premises of Riksmekleren in Grensen in central Oslo.

As of Monday at the latest, the strike in more than 200 private kindergartens has escalated to include as many as 3,600 employees in kindergartens associated with the National Association of Private Kindergartens (PBL) across the country.

After little sign of movement between the parties and a breach of voluntary mediation last week, the parties were summoned for mandatory mediation yesterday.

There, the national ombudsman Mats Ruland joined the meeting with the parties together with the two other mediators Geir Engebretsen and Inger-Marie Landfald.

– We will do everything possible to resolve the conflict and assume that the parties are solution-oriented today, Ruland told VG on Tuesday.

On the same day, the municipalities organization KS made sure to put pressure on the employers by allowing the municipalities to withdraw the municipal subsidy to the striking kindergartens during the strike.

During the strike, a number of parents who were affected by the strike also lobbied the striking parties by describing major problems with the management of daily life, childcare and working life.