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On Sunday, the government intervened in the conflict between KS and the Norwegian Medical Association with a mandatory salary board.
This marks the end of the special agreement strike, which runs from Monday, October 26.
The Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Henrik Asheim (H), tells Dagbladet that they regret having to intervene with a mandatory wage board.
– This is because the Norwegian Board of Health has given its opinion on the escalation that was announced early tomorrow. The Norwegian Board of Health categorically states that this endangers life and health.
Thus, the striking doctors resume work immediately.
So the doctors went on strike
- The core of the conflict is the special agreement that regulates outpatient care, the working conditions of newly graduated doctors and community medicine.
- The Norwegian Medical Association believes that the workload of GPs is too great. Today, they are required to work a certain amount of emergency room in addition to family doctor work. The medical association will have a limit on the amount of emergency room work that can be imposed on physicians.
- The requirement of the medical association in the negotiations has been that the doctor must consent to more than seven hours of emergency care per week, which corresponds to 28 hours of emergency care.
Source: NTB
These were going to strike
In Monday’s escalation, twelve new doctors were due to go on strike. The municipalities to which this applies are Kautokeino, Sirdal, Vang, Nord-Aurdal, Herøy (Møre og Romsdal) and Karasjok.
The recall included municipalities in districts with a heavy load of emergency rooms.
Since before, 23 doctors in Bergen, Tromsø, Narvik, Stavanger and Trondheim were on strike.
Asheim called parties to the doctors’ strike to a digital meeting Sunday afternoon. There he asked if there was anything the parties could do to prevent the government from intervening.
– They said no. As feedback from the parties was now received, the escalation would proceed as planned tomorrow. So we had no choice but to go to the mandatory salary meeting, the minister tells Dagbladet.
– We want the parties to resolve these types of legal conflicts by themselves. But when we get this kind of feedback from the Norwegian Board of Health, we have to react.
The last time there was a doctors strike was in 2016. Even then, the strike ended with a forced wage meeting, after five weeks.
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He thinks the intervention illustrates the point
President Marit Hermansen has led the negotiations for the Norwegian Medical Association.
The fact that the government was forced to intervene with a forced wage board illustrates the fragility of the emergency room organization in many places, Hermansen believes.
– In the last escalation, we have granted a dispensation for two of the twelve doctors. And yet this represents a danger to life and health, he tells Dagbladet.
Hasvik was exempted by the Norwegian Medical Association from the strike, as the municipality is particularly vulnerable. In the municipality there are only two doctors permanently employed, and if one went on strike, it would affect the entire outpatient regime.
Mediation between KS and the Norwegian Medical Association was interrupted on October 15 and the first strike went into effect on October 26. There was no contact between the parties after the breach of the Ombudsman.
Facts: Mandatory salary board
- Mandatory salary board means that the authorities step in and decide that the dispute will be resolved by a salary board, normally the National Salary Board.
- International conventions are based on the authorities only using such interventions when necessary for reasons of life and health or for compelling social reasons.
- The mandatory salary board must be approved by the Storting in each case.
- The Government is now submitting a proposal to the Storting with a special bill that prohibits the continuation of the labor struggle and leaves the National Wage Board to deal with the dispute of interests.
- The ruling of the National Salary Board enters into force as a collective agreement between KS and the Norwegian Medical Association.
- When a dispute is presented to the National Salary Board, the strike cannot continue.
- The National Salary Board is made up of a leader and eight other members, including two representatives from each of the parties in the individual case.
- The decision of the Salary Board has the same effects as a collective agreement.
Sources: Store Norske Leksikon, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, KS
– Extreme work arrangements
Doctors are demanding that the workload of GPs working on outpatient plans be reduced.
– We are in the middle of a pandemic, and the Norwegian Medical Association announced the escalation of the strike from Monday. Have you played a game too high?
– We believe that it is the municipalities that have a lot at stake, since they are not willing to assume employer responsibility. These are extreme work arrangements, where doctors work up to 100 hours in addition to a full work week, Hermansen responds.
– We have tried to do this as smooth and delicate as possible. At the same time, we now see how fragile these emergency rooms are organized. For us, these extreme working conditions cannot continue.
– What do you think of the fact that KS did not meet with you to avoid a forced salary table?
– For many years we have pointed this out to KS. But they have stepped back and left the responsibility for the emergency room on the shoulders of the individual physician. They have not taken responsibility for their employer. That’s unheard of I think.
KS: urgent with durable solutions
KS bosses are relieved that the strike is over.
They consider that the consequences that the strike would have for small municipalities with long travel distances show that it is urgent to find more durable solutions to the problems of the emergency room.
– We understand the impatience of the Norwegian Medical Association, but we wish they had chosen to dedicate this time to accelerating the ongoing work to find solutions for the emergency room, together with us and the national authorities, says the director of working life Tor Arne Gangsø in KS.
The situation of the crown has had nothing to do with the intervention of the government and has not been part of the assessment on its part, according to the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Asheim. The council is in danger of death and health due to the shortage of personnel in the small municipalities.
But KS director Gangsø is happy that the strike has ended as a result of the added strain the crown situation has on the health service.
– It goes without saying that dealing with a medical strike in the midst of a pandemic with rising infection rates is difficult. The municipal management in these municipalities has simply feared for the lives and health of the inhabitants, Gangsø says.
