Comments 2015
- The minimum wage — threat or opportunity?
- Stop worrying and join the debate about a legally binding minimum wage across the EU. That’s the bombshell from Bente Sorgenfrey, the new President for the Council of Nordic Trade Unions, NFS. Is fear for the debate the real problem, or is a statutory minimum wage a real threat to the Nordic model? The Nordic Labour Journal kicks off the debate in this month’s theme.
- Editorial: More than pink — it’s about power
- For the fifth year running the Nordic Labour Journal publishes the gender equality barometer. The division of power in the Nordic region is better than ever, but not across the board. This year we focus on religious societies, generally ruled by men. Nordic churches are different, with women as top bishops in Iceland, Norway and Sweden. But does power equal authority?
- An eye for the individual
- How do you help young people who are loosing their footing as they enter adulthood? How do you motivate youths who are not in education, employment or training find the right track to their future? These were key questions when the Nordic countries recently discussed how to fight youth unemployment.
- Basic skills - use them or lose them
- The results from the first ever Nordic PIAAC report are both exciting and frightening. It shows a surprising number of people have such poor basic skills that it affects their chances in working and public life, and it does not improve with age either.
- A space for Nordjobb?
- “Ambitions are often bigger than the results when it comes to Nordic cooperation, but that does not change the fact that the dogma is alive and well. And so is the feeling that we still have something valuable which should be looked after, nurtured and developed. So there is something at the core of all this,” says Poul Nielson in Portrait. Perhaps a perspective worth a thought as the Nordic Labour Journal focuses on Nordjobb.
- “So you want to pay VAT?"
- The shadow economy, undeclared work, social dumping. We are talking cheating and deception, but how do you fight the illegal actions which erode the welfare state?
- Refugees leaving their mark
- “I don’t believe anyone in any government office fails to think about refugees,” says the new Director for the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) Sigrun Vågeng in the Portrait. The numbers arriving to the Nordics have broken all predictions and colour societies and their public debate.
- Tighten up!
- The limit has been reached. Controls are being increased and things are being tightened up. Even Sweden has thrown in the towel. Swedish asylum rules will be adapted to fit with the EU’s minimum level. What now? Will the Nordic welfare societies stand the test?
- Gender equality important to parents and generals alike
- Last year Denmark got its first female leader for the confederation of trade unions, and Norway got its first female chief justice of the supreme court. There are still a few positions of power not yet held by a woman among the 24 which the Nordic Labour Journal measures. But the only position never held by a woman in any Nordic country is commander-in-chief.
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