Unionen together with Sveriges Ingenjörer and Akavia call fintech company Klarna to negotiation for collective bargain agreement, CBA. The step is welcomed by Sen Kanner, chairman of the local Unionen club at Klarna.
Apply for membership here
Publicerad 28 mars 2023
Now, this is yet another opportunity to be a trendsetter and enjoy the mark of excellence that a CBA actually means.
- Klarna is a leader in the tech industry in Sweden. Now, this is yet another opportunity to be a trendsetter and enjoy the mark of excellence that a CBA actually means, says Sen Kanner in an interview with Svenska Dagbladet.
An agreement would include a more reliable regulation on termination of employments, as well as safer and better outplacement service for affected employees.
- More than that, a CBA would also bring back trust and confidence between employees and employer as well as help solve some tricky issues around employment law.
Sen Kanner is backed up by Martin Linder, the President of Unionen:
- There is a lot of pressure to get a collective agreement sorted, from the members of Unionen at Klarna. Which of course is empowering for us in our drive for change and improvement. We now look forward to constructive negotiations with Klarna, he says in a press release from the same day.
We look forward to constructive negotiations with Klarna.
The collective agreement is the back bone of the Swedish Model and benefits since decennia employees as well as employers. The former get good and reliable conditions concerning issues like salary, employment, work hours and vacation as well as an increased safety in times of cuts and reorganizations. But most of all, the employees get impact and influence at work which leads to more trust and transparency and a better working environment. Read more about the Swedish Model and its benefits here.
- There is a lot to win for both parties with a CBA, concludes Sen Kanner.
Nästa artikel
On Monday, Unionen chose to terminate the negotiations with Klarna on a collective agreement, as reported by the worklife newspaper Kollega - after eight months of negotiations.
The news was soon picked up by several major newsrooms, like Breakit, Dagens Industri, Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet and TT.
"We have reached a point where there are no more issues to discuss, and we had to step away from the negotiations. Our demand for a collective agreement remains, but there's nothing more to talk about. It takes two parties to have something to negotiate about," says Martin Wästfelt, Union's Chief Negotiator, to Kollega.
The major stumbling block has been the issue of employees' influence in the workplace, concludes Kollega.
"Klarna's stance is that - for reasons inexplicable to us - they believe that a collective agreement hampers employee influence, while our perspective of course is the exact opposite”, says Martin Wästfelt, who then summarizes eight months of negotiations:
"It hasn't been a complete standstill; we've had discussions on substantive matters like pension issues, for instance. However, there has been a desire from Klarna's side to prolong the process."
What happens now, will this lead to conflict?
"That is our last resort and an important tool. But we won't reveal our next steps right now. Our goal is not to engage in a conflict, but it's a necessary means – if required."
Read the whole text in Kollega (in Swedish) here.
