A long series of strikes in recent months has generally yielded pay raises of around 3 percent in Norway, and that’s what the Prime Minister has received as well. The head of Norway’s trade union confederation LO, however, has done much better.
Newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) reported this week that LO boss Roar Flåthen, age 60, has received a pay hike of 17 percent during the past two years.
His pay and benefits package amounted to NOK 1.2 million last year (about USD 200,000 given exchange rates at the time), according to LO’s own accounts. At the beginning of 2008, Flåthen earned NOK 1.02 million, indicating a raise of 17 percent from 2008 to 2010.
The union boss also received a doubling in the amount of money LO paid into his pension account, from NOK 218,000 in 2007 to NOK 534,000 in 2009.
Much of the increase can be linked to Flåthen taking over the top spot at LO after Gerd-Liv Valla had to resign in 2007. He moved up from being a deputy leader within LO and had a lower pay level.
If he’d had Valla’s pay in 2007, his raise over the past two years would have amounted to around 14.5 percent, according to DN’s calculations. Flåthen also swapped his LO-paid car, a Saab, for a Volvo S80 D5, reports DN.
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, meanwhile, was granted a pay raise of 3.9 percent. He now earns, as of May 1, NOK 1,317,900 (USD 209,000), up from NOK 1,268,400.
Other cabinet ministers and Members of Parliament also received 3.9 percent pay hikes, to NOK 1,071,600 and NOK 724,100 respectively.
The raises were set by a parliamentary commission consisting for former state mediator Reidar Webster, Professor Fredik Engelstad and lawyer Inger Prebensen.
Views and News from Norway/Nina Berglund
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