The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour has dismissed Efling’s administrative complaint against the State Mediator’s mediating proposal, RÚV reports. The Ministry believes that the matter is “not an administrative decision that may be appealed to a higher authority.” In what is expected to be a big day, both the Labour Court and the District Court of Reykjavík will be hearing cases related to the ongoing dispute between Efling, the Confederation of Icelandic Enterprise, and the state mediator today.
Lack of consultation, questions about competency
In an announcement on its website at the end of January, Efling stated that it had filed an administrative complaint against the state mediator’s mediating proposal to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour. The union demanded that the mediating proposal be repealed as there was a lack of consultation, validity, proportionality, and equality. Efling added that the state mediator was incompetent and could not be considered impartial in the dispute.
On the union’s website yesterday, Efling announced that it had further submitted a request for annulment to the Reykjavík District Court. The reason: a lack of reaction from Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson, Minister of Social Affairs and Labour, to Efling’s administrative complaint.
This morning, however, the ministry announced that it had decided to dismiss Efling’s complaint. In the opinion of the Ministry, the mediating proposal, according to Article 27 of the Act on Trade Unions and Industrial Disputes, is part of the work of the state mediator and part of the procedure that aims to resolve a labor dispute between the parties. In contrast, paragraph 2 of Article 1 of administrative law states that the law applies when the government, including administrative committees, make decisions about “people’s rights or obligations.”
“Decisions on procedure and decisions that have a general legal effect are, therefore, not considered decisions on the rights or obligations of people in this regard,” the verdict reads.
A “big day” in the labour dispute
As noted by Vísir, today marks a “big day” in the dispute between Efling and the Confederation of Icelandic Enterprise (SA), on the one hand, and in the dispute between Efling and the state mediator, on the other. Hearings will take place today in the Reykjavík District Court in the dispute between Efling and the state mediator (the mediator has requested Efling’s electoral roll in order to put the mediating proposal to a vote among Efling members).
The Labour Court will also begin hearings in the dispute between Efling and SA this afternoon; SA has requested that the court rule whether or not Efling union members are allowed to go through with their planned strikes on Tuesday – while the state mediator’s proposal remains on the table.
