Mediation on overtime in the hotel and restaurant industry

The parties met on Saturday morning at the Ombudsman’s office for compulsory mediation. The deadline expired at midnight on Monday night, but both the Federation and Parat, which negotiates with NHO Reiseliv, agreed to continue the mediation.

On Monday morning, both Fellesforbundet and Parat state that the parties are still in mediation. Thus, the members meet at work as usual.

The union has announced that they are laying off 1,549 employees in 77 companies.

If there is no agreement with the Ombudsman, 262 employees will initially go on strike at three Oslo hotels: Plaza, Grand and Hotel Amerikalinjen.

The federal union entered the negotiations with demands for increased purchasing power, raising minimum wage rates and supplements.

Must have real wage growth

– After three years of falling real wages, our members must have a settlement that ensures them an income that is higher than the rise in prices, said negotiation leader Clas Delp in the Confederation of Swedish Trade Unions at the start of negotiations.

Parat’s members have clear expectations of a pay rise after several years of falling real wages, declares negotiator Turid Svendsen.

– These workers have physically demanding work, and many work in the evenings, weekends and public holidays and without a fixed number of hours. In our opinion, basic salary and bonuses are not high enough to compensate for the obviously higher health risk that such unpredictable working hours entail, she says.

Too expensive

NHO Reiseliv, for its part, has pointed out that the share of wage costs in the accommodation and catering industry is much higher than the average in other industries. In 2022, 36.9 per cent of the expenditure kroner in the industry went to wages.

At the same time, the industry has been under pressure. Higher interest rates combined with high commodity prices, electricity prices, labor costs and fewer bookings are the backdrop that affects many companies, according to NHO Reiseliv.

– A sharp wage increase on top of this will be difficult for many tourism companies to handle, they write on their website.