Price war with Hungarian wages

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In three weeks The low-cost company Wizz Air has arrived with a new great offer on flights between Bergen and Oslo: 199 crowns.

But despite this good news for all travelers, the Hungarian company has met the icy shoulders of Norway.

The company does not like unions. As Wizz boss József Váradi told Dagens Næringsliv on Tuesday: “Unions are not my thing.”

This led Prime Minister Erna Solberg (H) to say, from the Storting rostrum, that she wanted to boycott the company. This is not exactly a daily diet.

But for the employees In Norwegian aviation, the crushing of unions is not the worst, even if it is bad enough, and it violates Norwegian law.

For Norwegian aircraft employees, it is worse that Wizz Air is likely to fly domestically in Norway with Hungarian wages and working conditions. In the long run, it could put pressure on Norwegian and SAS to the same extent, provided they survive the crown crisis.

When I write “probably”, it is because Wizz Air does not give any details on how they want to operate the Norwegian domestic routes.

According to Váradi, they pay “market wages.” But it is not the same as Norwegian wages or Norwegian working hours for that matter.

The company says it will follow Norwegian laws and regulations. But there is nothing that can stop them from flying to Norway on Hungarian wages, as long as they organize themselves in the right way.

Wages and working conditionsincluding the lengths of the guards and such, it is by far the only international airline you can compete for. Most other costs, like fuel, airfare, and taxes, are relatively the same for everyone.

Should Wizz Air be successful? To keep wages low on Norwegian domestic routes, in practice they must hire people from their home countries. If the company establishes a permanent base with staff living in Norway, their salaries simply won’t be enough.

And that’s what makes Wizz Air take on the job of Norwegian employees at SAS and Norwegian, if we now leave out the crown crisis: it is not possible to live on a Hungarian salary in Norway.

The Wizz Air case goes in a pattern created by the EEA agreement. Workers from EU countries are free to work in Norway for wages well below the Norwegian collective wage.

Because this has the potential to undermine Norwegian wage conditions and, in practice, outperform Norwegian employees, the Storting can order all members of an industry to follow the collective wage.

It has been done in everything from cleaning to shipbuilding, but not so far in aviation. But I think Norwegian and SAS have been much more interested in such a solution: they and the unions must come together to achieve generalization.

It certainly can’t be difficult with Norwegians on board the plane. The competition of a company with a fraction of the salary level, on the most profitable routes, SAS and Norwegian cannot live with time. Then they will probably also go away and use low-wage workers from other countries.

I don’t think it will. I suppose you will now see progress in achieving a generalization. It will sound much better politically, especially now that the ruling Høgre party itself has become a warm friend of the union courts.

Also, airlines want more corona support. You don’t bite your hand like before. Especially not when it belongs to Erna Solberg.