A merger of Norway's two largest private sector industry and employers' confederations, the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO) and the Federation of Norwegian Commercial and Service Enterprises (HSH), may result from deliberations initiated by the two organisations' governing bodies in February 2002. The aim is to have the new organisation formally established on 1 January 2003.
On 27 February 2002, the governing bodies of the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (Næringslivets Hovedorganisasjon, NHO) and the Federation of Norwegian Commercial and Service Enterprises (Handels- og Servicenæringens Hovedorganisasjon, HSH) decided to set up a joint steering committee with responsibility for considering the basis for a merger between Norway's two largest private sector industry and employers' confederations. The committee has until 25 May 2002 to come up with its recommendations. The intention is to have the new merged organisation formally established on 1 January 2003. If and when established, the organisation will be the largest employers' confederation in the private sector, representing more than 30,000 companies with around 700,000 workers.
NHO came into being after a merger in 1989 between the Norwegian Employers' Confederation (Norsk Arbeidsgiverforening, NAF) and two smaller industry and crafts associations. It is by far the largest and oldest employers' organisation in Norway, originating at the turn of the last century. It is both an employers' and an industry confederation for companies in manufacturing industries, private services and crafts. NHO's membership base consists of more than 16,000 enterprises, ranging from small family-owned businesses to large industrial enterprises, employing approximately 450,000 workers.
HSH is also the result of a merger during the 1990s of five major sectoral organisations in the wholesale and retail trade and private services. In 1999, HSH merged with the APO employers' organisation (NO9809189N), and thus now also organises private hospitals and other healthcare institutions. HSH has approximately 14,600 member companies employing around 250,000 people.
The main rationale behind the proposed merger of HSH and NHO is to strengthen the conditions for private sector industry and service activities in Norway, and to strengthen the private sector's role in wage and policy formation vis-à-vis the national government, as well as in relation to trade unions. Historically, potentially damaging rivalry between Norwegian employers' organisations has been prevented by clearly demarcated bargaining and membership areas. Moreover, the dominant role of private manufacturing industry in Norwegian working life has allowed NHO a leading role both in relation to industry policy formation and in collective bargaining and wage formation. More recently, however, competition between NHO and HSH has increased over members in the growing private service sector (NO9712138F), and NHO's dominant role has to some extent been challenged by HSH in recent years, through increased representation both on public committees (NO9908145F) and in collective bargaining. Despite these differences, the two organisations recognise that their views converge in many areas of commercial and industry policy formation, and that, as employers' organisations, they are facing the same challenges with regards to wage formation and developments in labour law .
In response to the merger proposal, the leader of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisasjonen i Norge, LO), Gerd-Liv Valla, has called on the other main trade union confederations to join forces, and made particular reference to the Confederation of Vocational Unions (Yrkesorganisasjonenes Sentralforbund, YS). Ms Valla has on previous occasions expressed a wish to see closer cooperation and indeed even a merger between LO and YS (NO9907140F), and argues that the proposed merger between NHO and HSH now makes this possibility more viable than ever.