NO TAX INCREASE ON WAGES (Dagsavisen)

The Labour Party and the centre alliance parties look set to reach a final agreement on the budget. There will be no tax increase on earned income, but we may be taxed on the profits from our participation in investment funds, bank deposits and all other financial investments. The new tax scheme is an alternative to the Labour Party’s dividend tax , which was unacceptable to the centre parties.

NO FORMS (Dagbladet)

Two Social Affairs Ministers have promised that injured North Sea divers will receive government compensation of up to NOK 200,000. The scheme should have come into effect from 1 July this year. But so far no money has been paid out. According to the National Insurance Administration the reason is that it has taken a long time to develop a separate computer program to handle the matter. "We have had to make our own forms, and given that there is so much money involved we have to have a computerized follow-up system," says National Insurance Administration Principal Officer Svein Lindstrøm.

PROGRESS PARTY DOWN BUT STILL LARGEST (Aftenposten)

The Labour Party Conference has not resulted in a rise in popularity among the electorate. According to an opinion poll carried out by Opinion AS this week, the ruling party has the support of 23.9 per cent of voters, a relatively modest improvement of 1.2 percentage points. The Progress Party keeps its position as the country’s largest party, though its popularity rating has slipped by 3.7 percentage points. The Progress Party has the support of 26.1 per cent of voters. Support for the Progress Party has fallen by over eight percentage points since September.

MORE STOCK OPTIONS – LOWER SICK PAY (Aftenposten)

The newly elected president of the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO) Jens Ulltveit-Moe would like to see more bonuses and stock options for senior executives. He believes it is right to link pay levels to a company’s financial results. However, he would also like to see a cut in sick pay, and warns that this is an issue over which he is prepared to fight. Gerd-Liv Valla, deputy president of the Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), expects Mr Ulltveit-Moe to change his tune once he has finished his introductory training. "It seems as if the NHO and its new president haven’t understood that ordinary working people are angry about excessive executive salaries, stock options and giant dividend payouts," she says.

STRICTER OPERATING PROCEDURES FOR HIGH-SPEED FERRIES (Aftenposten)

Unannounced inspections, whole-body survival suits for all passengers, safer evacuation systems and a "black box" recorder are among the recommendations made by the Norwegian Maritime Directorate in its follow-up of the "Sleipner" accident inquiry. In all, 27 specific proposals for preventing accidents by improving the operating procedures for the country’s 20 high-speed ferries were handed to Trade and Industry Minister Grete Knudsen yesterday.

BILLIONS OF KRONER SPENT ON CONSULTANTS (Dagens Næringsliv)

From the beginning of 1997 until the end of September this year Telenor has spent NOK 7.3 billion on consultants and temporary personnel. Last year consultancy costs amounted to a third of Telenor’s total payroll expenses.

WORTH NOTING

1. Yesterday around 300 Singhalese nationalists demonstrated outside the Norwegian embassy in Sri Lanka in protest against Norwegian efforts to mediate in the country’s civil war. The demonstrators also burned an effigy of Norwegian peace negotiator Erik Solheim. (NTB)
2. A new battle over late opening hours for shops looks likely. "It is just too ridiculous to start a fight over this issue now," said Sture Arntsen, president of the Norwegian Union of Commercial and Office Employees. He was commenting on Children and Family Affairs Minister Karita Bekkemellom Orheim’s initiative to evaluate the possibility of extending shop opening hours. (Dagsavisen)
3. Every single aircraft passenger travelling to or from Røros is subsidised to the tune of NOK 1,170 by Braathens. To save the route from closure the Government may put it up for tender and buy capacity itself. (Aftenposten)
4. Following massive criticism of the company, Statoil chief executive Olav Fjell has given up the NOK 440,000 bonus which the company’s board of directors was planning to give him. The board awarded Mr Fjell his bonus as a reward for the results he has achieved for the company this year.
5. Less than a month before Einar Førde leaves his position as chief executive of the country’s publicly financed national broadcasting company, NRK’s board of directors is still searching for his replacement. (Dagens Næringsliv)
6. Roads in the southeast of Norway have been closed by flooding. In the northwest people are eating newly picked raspberries from their own gardens, there is an abundance of blueberries and roses are still in full bloom. (Vårt Land)

TODAY’S COMMENT FROM AFTENPOSTEN

Jens Ulltveit-Moe has placed wage moderation and a cut in sick pay at the top of his agenda. But on his first day as president of the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO) he has also publicly defended large salaries for senior executives in the form of bonuses and stock options. None of this comes as a surprise. But taken together they represent a declaration of war on the trade union movement. It is not only the NHO which wants the current sick pay system changed. The explosion in the number of workers receiving sick pay and the accelerating slide from long-term sick leave to permanent disability pension is making severe inroads into the growth in the labour force and the Government’s ability to introduce reforms in the national budget. For both the Government and the centre alliance parties these developments are a nightmare. The current budget negotiations have been reduced to a battle over which tax-payers will be stuck with the bill.

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