At noon yesterday, the institutional agreement of the Vestfjörður Health Institute was signed with the Vestfjörður Trade Union and the Bolungarvík Trade Union. The agreement is based on the government's collective agreement with the Trade Union, which was signed on March 6, 2020.

The contract covers the organization's 107 employees at all establishments. Most of the jobs are in nursing homes, cleaning and in kitchens.

A significant wage increase is included in the contract, which is retroactive to the first of January. Those who were on the lowest salary are guaranteed the biggest increase in ISK. Everyone must have increased by at least ISK 90,000 on January 1, 2022.

Otherwise, the main innovation is the projection into a new wage table, which is based on both categories and levels, whereas the old wage table only had categories. The projection made the negotiation quite complicated, but it simplifies the salary ranking for the future and facilitates comparison with other unions.

"The cooperation with the unions has been successful despite the time-consuming calculations," says Hanna Þóra Hauksdóttir, human resources manager who led the negotiation committee of the Vestfjörður Health Foundation, which included Hrannar Örn Hrannarsson, finance director, Hildur Elísabet Pétursdóttir, nursing manager, and Sigríður Rósa Magnúsdóttir, salary representative.


From the signing of the contract. Standing from the left: Hildur Elísabet Pétursdóttir, Hrannar Örn Hrannarsson and Hanna Þóra Hauksdóttir in the negotiating committee of the Vestfjörður Health Foundation. Seated from the left: Finnbogi Sveinbjörnsson, chairman of the Vestfjörður Trade Union, Hrund Karlsdóttir fh the Bolungarvíkur Trade Union and Seamen's Association, and Gylfi Ólafsson, director of the Vestfjörður Health Institute.

Author: GÓ