Older workers squeezed out of their jobs (Aftenposten)

Around 25 per cent of those who have chosen to take early retirement via the AFP scheme regret their decision and wish they had stayed on at work, according to a survey carried out by the Institute of Applied Social Sciences (FAFO). FAFO asked 1,500 early retirees why they had decided to stop work. A large number said they felt their employer no longer had any use for their skills or their labour. "In many cases older workers allow themselves to be pressured into early retirement. Many of them also emphasized that their workplaces were downsizing, making it natural for the ones who left to be given early retirement," said Tove Midtsundstad, a researcher with FAFO.

Older workers bullied at work (Verdens Gang)

Many people believe that older workers are the silent victims of bullying in the workplace. The newly formed organization, Senior Issues, now wants a change in the legislation. The organization came into being yesterday and the first thing it plans to do is to change both the penal code and the Working Environment Act to put age discrimination on a par with discrimination on the grounds of skin colour, sexual orientation and religion. According to Gender Equality Ombud Kristin Mille, the EU has already adopted rules banning workplace discrimination on the grounds of age or other reasons. "It would be natural for Norway to follow this up as part of the EEA Agreement," she said.

More of us on basic state pension (Dagsavisen)

In future more of us could end up on the basic state pension, and women could be worst affected when the National Insurance Scheme is modernized. Those with middle incomes will receive smaller pensions. This will hit women especially hard. On the other hand, those with high incomes will receive bigger pensions. The new scheme is supposed to help keep Mr and Mrs Norwegian at work until they are older, and the change includes a more flexible retirement age of between 62 and 72 years, with the individual’s pension rising the longer they stay at work. These are the preliminary conclusions of the Pensions Commission, whose report will be handed over to the Government today.

Labour goes in for increased property taxes (Aftenposten)

The Labour leadership has signalled that it favours an increase in taxes on homes and real estate, while income taxes could be cut, according to a proposal to be debated by the party’s annual conference. "We want to look more closely at the taxation of homes and real estate in relation to the redistribution of wealth. One strategy could be to tax homes/real estate, and possibly other assets, more severely, and reduce income taxes." This is the recommendation given by Labour’s central committee to a proposal from the party’s Grünerløkka branch for a cut in taxes on income and an increase in taxes on inheritances, assets and other investment objects which cannot be moved abroad. Other proposals: to abolish the monarchy and boycott Israeli goods.

Guarantees price cap (Dagsavisen)

Local authorities and researchers have slammed the proposed pre-school day care reform, but the Progress Party’s Siv Jensen is guaranteeing nursery places for all and a price cap of NOK 1,500. "We have made it clear that the maximum price for a nursery place is to be NOK 1,500 per month. If it were up to the Progress Party, I could guarantee it. We shall do our best to make sure this becomes a reality. Together with the other parties we will do what needs to be done in this autumn’s national budget process to ensure that these targets are met," said Ms Jensen.

LO losing power and market share (Aftenposten)

In the past 12 years interest in joining the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) has fallen steadily. In 1990 the LO had 602,235 members in paid employment, or 33.4 per cent of the entire workforce. At the end of last year that figure had fallen to 565,007, or 26.8 per cent. Soon half of all Norwegian employees will not be members of a union, which will reduce the chances of forcing the Government and employers into a new collaboration over pay. Falling membership figures for the trade unions could indicate that Norway is approaching the level of unionization which is normal in Europe.

Finance Minister cuts to the bone (Verdens Gang)

Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss (Con) has won the tripartite coalition government’s backing for the biggest ever cuts in the national budget next year. From what VG has learned, the cuts will be larger than they were in the crisis-hit autumn of 1998 when Kjell Magne Bondevik’s centre alliance government tightened the budget by almost NOK 10 billion. "You have to go back to Gro Harlem Brundtland’s term in office to find a tighter budget," says a source close to the Government’s budget process. The public sector is to be cut back, there will be microscopic tax cuts and perhaps interest rates will go down, are just some of the proposals.

Giske: Room for lower interest rates

"It is no good being extremely competitive in five years’ time if companies and skills have disappeared by then. If the Norwegian Central Bank means what it says about the need to have an industry which can compete in international markets, the Bank’s Governor, Svein Gjedrem, should cut interest rates, not put them up," said Trond Giske in response to a series of gloomy pronouncements from Norway’s industrial sector. He has warned there will be an "interest rate rebellion" at the Labour Party’s annual conference in November.

No end in sight to stock market slump (Dagens Næringsliv)

The high-profile adviser, Svein Haga, is convinced that the downturn in the stock market will continue for several years. "Analysts who say that the tide will soon turn are irresponsible," said Mr Haga. He believes shares on the Oslo Stock Exchange could fall by a further 30 per cent. Despite this long-term gloomy outlook, Mr Haga believes there will be an upturn in the Norwegian stock market from October until Christmas, but claims that it will be short-lived. Yesterday the Oslo Stock Exchange’s main index fell to its second lowest level this year.

No industrial crisis (Nationen)

Despite bankruptcies, lay-offs, redundancies and companies moving industrial production abroad, Trade and Industry Minister Ansgar Gabrielsen says that Norwegian industry is not in crisis. On the contrary, he claims that in the past six months industry has seen positive developments. Industry itself has reacted sharply to the Minister’s analysis, claiming that Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss is not taking industry’s problems seriously enough either. "What worries me most is that Mr Foss and Mr Gabrielsen seems so unconcerned," said Karl Nysterud, chief executive of the Federation of Norwegian Engineering Industries (TBL).

Worth Noting

• "The Government should stop casting doubts on the pre-school day care reform," said the Socialist Left Party’s Øystein Djupedal. He describes professor Rattsø’s report as "typical academic modelling".
  (Aftenposten)
• Teachers are afraid that the standardized state school system could be doomed. They warn that major quality differences between schools will lead to a flood of private schools.
  (Vårt Land)
• The Government is proposing a number of measures to protect witnesses in criminal trials. In a proposal to the Storting the Government wants to allow witnesses, in extreme cases, to be given fabricated personal identity numbers.
  (NTB)
• The compromise defence agreement between the Government and the Labour Party for the period 2002 to 2005 has been praised by Nato Secretary General Lord Robertson. This will probably cheer up the Defence Department and the Armed Forces leadership, who are in the middle of what is perhaps the largest public service restructuring so far undertaken in Norway.
  (Aftenposten)
• Only an extremely tight budget from Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss can relieve the pressure on interest rates. This is the main message from economists at both Nordea and the Norwegian Financial Services Association (FNH). The Norwegian economy will do well – apart from industry, which will suffer.
  (Dagens Næringsliv)
• The Norwegian Association of NGOs for Palestine has asked the Foreign Ministry to put pressure on Israel to allow Yasser Arafat to travel freely to Oslo and home again. Mr Arafat has been invited to Oslo on 16 September.
  (Aftenposten)
• The wild reindeer population on the high moorland of the Hardangervidda is now extremely vulnerable, and the number of animals has been severely reduced. The construction of an excessive number of holiday homes, combined with overgrazing are probably the cause of this downturn.
  (Dagbladet)

Today’s comment from Verdens Gang

We learned yesterday that one of Norway’s leading experts on local government finances and public management, professor Jørn Rattsø, has slammed the pre-school day care reform proposed this spring. Professor Rattsø’s rapport points out a number of unfortunate consequences of the proposal, and asks several new and difficult questions – questions we believe the four parties responsible for it will find difficult to answer. The most obvious problem is that the proposal does not clarify who has responsibility for what. The state is to put up the money, but local authorities and private organizations are to run the nurseries. And that smells of central government bureaucracy. For how else is the state to make sure that the money is being spent correctly? It is also extremely unclear what will happen to the private nurseries. Many private nurseries could end up in severe difficulties as a result of the proposal. Some of them could even go bankrupt. It seems increasingly clear that this spring’s deal between the Labour Party, the Socialist Left Party, the Progress Party and the Centre Party is a piece of poor political craftsmanship. It is irresponsible. It is costly. And it will probably have the opposite effect of that intended. We run the risk of having fewer nursery places, not more. And the provision of pre-school day care could end up being more expensive more, not less. The parliamentary majority could not have known what it was doing. If the four parties responsible for the proposal are really concerned about providing more and cheaper pre-school day care, they will have to have another think.