Salary negotiations for NITO members are conducted locally in the individual enterprises in both the private sector and large parts of the public sector.
The criteria in the collective agreements provide the basis for local salary negotiations. A collective agreement is a written agreement between a trade union and an employer concerning salary and working conditions.
Examples of such criteria can be an enterprise's financial or competitive situation.
NITO is concerned that most importance should be attached to the situation for individual companies; if their value creation is high, it is natural that the engineers and technologists should be duly rewarded.
How are salary negotiated in Norway?
Salary negotiations are normally conducted once a year in Norway.
For most engineers and technologists salary negotiations are conducted within the enterprise they work in. The employee representatives and the enterprise's management negotiate, often to reach agreement on a salary norm.
In practice, a salary norm means a percentage rate for the average salary increase agreed on for a group. For example, a local NITO group in an undertaking, can negotiate with management and reach agreement on a salary norm of four per cent.
This means that all NITO members in the undertaking will receive a four-per-cent salary increase with effect from an agreed date but does not necessarily mean that everyone will receive the same increase. For example, it might be agreed that everyone will receive a three-per-cent increase and that the final one per cent will be allocated by the employer according to agreed criteria and input from the employee representatives.
How this is resolved will vary from one undertaking to the next. If you have a NITO employee representative in your workplace, you can ask them what the practice is there.
Individual salary negotiations
In addition to the annual negotiations, salary negotiations for individual members may be conducted when called for by changes that have taken place, such as the introduction of new duties or the completion of skills development programs.
Our experience is that changing jobs presents an opportunity to achieve the biggest pay increases, whether you are negotiating with your present employer or with a new one. It is also normal to negotiate for a higher pay grade on completion of the trial period, usually after six months.
Contact the NITO representative at your workplace if you believe there are grounds for conducting such negotiations on your behalf. And remember that it is normal practice to negotiate your own pay when you are offered a new job.
How do you benefit from the Norwegian model?