Union dispute over the right to organise in newly privatised enterprises is resolved

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In June 199, the LO trade union confederation decided that members of its affiliated unions who are employed in newly privatised public sector enterprises may choose to keep their membership in their original (public sector) union, if a majority of the members concerned agree, rather than transferring to the equivalent private sector union.

Questions concerning trade union organisation and collective bargaining in newly privatised enterprises were considered during the general council meeting of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisasjonen i Norge, LO), which was held on 22-23 June 1998. The guiding rule of LO has been that employees are organised by the union possessing the right to reach collective agreements in the enterprise or branch concerned. There has, however, been disagreement between the various LO unions as to which union has the right to organise employees in newly privatised enterprises, focusing mostly on parts of the municipal sector such as transport and waste disposal. In these areas, several enterprises have changed their affiliation from the Norwegian Association of Local Authorities (Kommunenes Sentralforbund, KS) to the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (Næringslivets Hovedorganisasjon, NHO). The implication is that collective agreements for similar branches in the private sector should be made applicable to these companies, and that LO-affiliated unions in the private, rather than public sector become the bargaining partners. In other areas of the public sector a change of employer affiliation will not, usually, lead to any change in the identity of the LO union which has organising rights.

This issue of the right to organise employees in publicly owned enterprises which change their employers' association affiliation led to a major debate during LO's national congress in the spring of 1997 (NO9705110F). In the municipal sector, the Norwegian Union of Municipal Employees (Norsk Kommuneforbund, NKF) wanted the employees concerned to remain members of NKF, but several unions in the private sector called for the transfer of these employees to the relevant private sector union. The end result was a compromise in which the congress decided that the question needed further deliberation .

The unanimous recommendation by the committee given the task of deliberating over the question of organisational affiliation was that employees in enterprises which are newly privatised may keep their original union membership as long as a majority of the members concerned agree. In such cases, the union concerned must reach an agreement to cooperate with the LO-affiliated union in the private sector which is party to the relevant collective agreement. The recommendation, which was adopted at the June general council meeting, implies that NKF managed to secure acceptance for its view, and that the organisation may keep its members who are employed in independent privatised enterprises.