Journalists’ strike: Editors laid off (avisa.no)

According to NRK, Aftenposten has already laid off a number of editors. The majority of Dagbladet’s editors will be laid off on Friday afternoon and will have to sign on for unemployment benefit, according to the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, John O. Egeland. Avisa.no reports Mr Egeland as saying that only three editors will remain on the job following the layoffs. Mr Egeland himself will not be laid off. Dagbladet has halted publication of the newspaper during the strike, while Aftenposten contains only advertising material.

Progress Party on top in new poll (NTB)

Support for the Progress Party has slipped, but it is still the country’s largest party. According to a new poll carried out by Sentio-Norsk Statistikk on behalf of Nationen, Klassekampen and Dagen, the Progress Party has the backing of 23.2 per cent of the electorate. If there had been a general election today Carl I. Hagen’s party would on this showing have won 41 seats in the Storting – 15 more than today. The Labour Party would have won 40 seats, a reduction of 3 seats, while the Bondevik coalition would have lost a total of 15 seats, giving them only 48 MPs in all – 32 from the Conservatives and 16 from the Christian Democrats. The Liberals would not have won any mandates at all, while the Steinar Bestesen’s Coastal Party would have two representatives in the Storting. The Socialist Left Party would have 25 seats and the Centre Party 9.

Outline solution being considered (nrk.no)

State Mediator Reidar Webster has presented an outline solution to the pay negotiations currently underway in the hospital sector, which the two sides are now considering. It is therefore still not clear if 5,000 hospital workers will be called out on strike. NRK’s radio news programme, Dagsnytt, is given to understand that a decision could be made shortly. The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), the Confederation of Vocational Unions (YS) NAVO, the Norwegian Association of Practical Nurses and the Confederation of Higher Education Unions, Norway (UHO) have gone to voluntary arbitration with the public sector employers’ organization, NAVO. If there is a strike it will involve around 5,000 nurses, physiotherapists, ergotherapists, radiographers and pharmacists at hospitals throughout the country.

Chaos at Braathens meeting (dagbladet.no)

Braathens employees boycotted a meeting they were to have had on Thursday with the company’s top management because the press was not allowed in. Around 150 employees had turned up for a general meeting at Gardermoen, at which chief executive Vidar Meum was to have answered questioned from ground services staff whose jobs have just been axed, reported P4 radio. However, Braathens’ boss refused to allow the press to attend the meeting, upon which the employees also walked out. "We found out via the media that we had lost our jobs, so the media are sure as heck going to be allowed to sit in on this meeting," Braathens shift leader Cato Lien told Nettavisen.

Hagen saves Bondevik’s bacon (Dagsavisen)

The Progress Party and the governing coalition parties in the Storting’s Finance Committee are on the verge of agreeing a compromise on the revised national budget. The two most important issues on the table are the Progress Party’s demands for a reduction in motor vehicle taxation and more money for hospital treatment. "We are making reasonable progress in our negotiations on both these issues," the Progress Party’s Siv Jensen told the Newspapers’ News Agency (ANB) yesterday evening. Sources at the Storting say they are surprised at how easy the coalition’s negotiations with the Progress Party have been this time. The Progress Party’s new attitude is also a reflection of the fact that the party’s aggressive stance with regard to last autumn’s national budget negotiations proved a complete failure.

Labour and Progress Party smell something fishy (Nettavisen)

Both the Labour Party and the Progress Party are highly critical of the fact that State Secretary Solveig Strand at the Fisheries Ministry is once again mixed up in a case of alleged fisheries fraud. "Ms Strand should consider her position as State Secretary very thoroughly," said Labour’s fisheries spokesman, Bendiks H. Arnesen. Ms Strand’s family owns a fleet of fishing vessels based in Ålesund, which makes her a part owner of the fishing boat Havbris which, according to NRK, has been arrested by the Coast Guard for failing to report a catch of 4.5 tonnes of Greenland halibut.

ESA to make decision on Snow White affair (ANB)

This afternoon the members of the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) will gather in the office of its president, Einar Bull, in Brussels. There they will deliberate the Norwegian government’s new proposals for tax incentives in connection with the development of the Snow White gas field off the coast of Hammerfest in northern Norway. The terms for the developers are the same as those approved by the Storting on 7 March, but the outer framework has been changed. The Government is now claiming that the project is adapted to the special regional development rules which apply to North Troms and Finnmark.

Jagland calls for imposed solution on the Mid-East adversaries (Vårt Land)

Labour leader Thorbjørn Jagland says that the international community should impose a solution on the parties involved in the Middle East conflict, and that a heavily armed international contingent should be in place to supervise its implementation. Mr Jagland has been in contact with the Israeli Labour Party and claims that they are willing to accept such a solution. He also says that the party is preparing to pull out of the current Sharon government. According to Mr Jagland’s latest internet bulletin, he has been invited to attend the annual conference of the Israeli Labour Party at the start of July. In the bulletin Mr Jagland also attacks the Storting’s Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs Committee for dancing to Carl I. Hagen and Verdens Gang’s tune over the Mona Juul affair, and warns against Mr Hagen’s agenda in the Middle East conflict.

1 Worth Noting

1. Taxpayers who send in their tax returns via the internett are investigated less thoroughly than those who use conventional methods, writes Bergens Tidende. Svein Røynesdal, the inspector of taxes in Bergen, told the newspaper that one of the fields in the electronic tax return is "difficult to access" for employees at the tax office. The field is used to specify income and deductions which the taxpayer is unsure about. When this field is not checked, no tax is paid on the income specified there. (NTB)
2. For the first time ever the majority of Norwegian children are now born out of wedlock, according to recent figures from Statistics Norway. Last year 49 per cent of all those born in Norway had married parents. 42 per cent had parents who were living together, but were not married, while 8 per cent were born to single mothers. The birth rate last year was the lowest since 1987, with women in all age groups giving birth to fewer children. The average age of first-time mothers was 27.5 years. (Nationen)
3. New school rules: From this autumn cigarettes and mobile phones will be banned from all Oslo schools. Neither teachers nor students will be allowed to send text messages, ring friends or have a smoke during school hours. (Nettavisen)