"It is pleasing and entirely reasonable that members within Almega now receive salary increases, shorter working hours, and fair rules for compensation to part-time employees", says Unionen's chairman Peter Hellberg in a press release.
"In the agreements, we, together with Unionen and Sveriges Ingenjörer, establish that we now find solutions adapted to the conditions and prerequisites of the service sector and the specific agreement areas", says Maria Möller, employer policy chief at Almega, in a press release.
In total, approximately 4,500 Unionen members and around 1,000 engineers were called to the now averted strike. An agreement on salary increases of 6.4 percent over two years has been signed.
One working day less
Camilla Frankelius, chief negotiator at Sveriges ingenjörer, describes it as "really tough negotiations", but that they are very pleased.
We have got the things in place that we wanted to get in place, she says to TT.
Frankelius primarily highlights the shorter working hours, which have been the major stumbling block:
We have had this in the industry for many, many years – so therefore it is very important. We think that our members in the service sector should have as good conditions as those in the industry, where shorter working hours are an important part.
When it comes to salaries, the increases are at the level of the so-called benchmark, the agreement reached in the industry.
Besides the shorter working hours, one day per year, the union has also achieved overtime compensation for part-time employees.
SVT strike not averted
Nine companies were affected by the strike notice on April 23: Kiwa, WSP, Tyréns, Sweco, ISS Facility Services, Opus bilprovning, Carspect, Academedia Support in Stockholm, and SSE Executive Education at the Stockholm School of Economics.
Unionen's strike notice on SVT on April 25 is not averted. Mediation is ongoing between the trade unions and the employer, Medieföretagen within Almega.
"It is remarkable that Medieföretagen still holds out against and cannot agree to the reasonable demands that Unionen makes and which other parties on the labor market have accepted", says Unionen's chief negotiator Martin Wästfelt in a press release.
