Reykjavík Grapevine - 15.08.2014, Blaðsíða 8

In Iceland, labour unions and employers' organiza-tions negotiate to establish parameters for pay and other benefits. Earlier this month, a 22-year-old new hire of Lebowski Bar made
the not unreasonable demand of be-
ing paid according to the general wage
contract. Apparently, her employer,
instead of paying different rates for
weekdays, weekends and nights—as
is required by law—paid out a single
hourly wage for all times of day and
night.
This isn't 'Nam. This is a paycheck.
There are rules.
Yes, the bar is named after 'The Big
Lebowski,' but there is no need to
make this article a collection of quotes
from the film. According to the former
employee, bar management demanded
that she pause her work participation
immediately. After she pointed out
that there is no such thing as pausing
your work participation, she was fired.
So Lebowski Bar treats objects like
women?
Phrasing your film quote as a ques-
tion doesn't make it any less an-
noying. This unfair dismissal
turned into a PR disaster for
Lebowski Bar when the mother
of the employee wrote an un-
derstandably outraged letter
to a newspaper detailing what
happened. The bar quickly
paid their former employee
the wages they owed her and
vowed to start paying others
according to the general wage
contract. But they stopped
short of promising to pay back
the money owed to others they
might have underpaid.
Ve vant ze money, Lebowski! What
did you think of my German ac-
cent?
It was terrible, and please stop quot-
ing the film. The labour union Efling,
which has many waitstaff among its
members, received around two hun-
dred complaints about underpayment
in the first half of this year; most of
these had to do with bars, restaurants
and cafés. And it was revealed that,
among others, Geysir Bistro and the
Subway chain of sandwich shops had
been systematically underpaying their
staff in much the same way as Leb-
owski Bar.
For what? For a little bit of money?
There's more to life than a little
money, you know. Don'tcha know?
Quoting 'Fargo' is not any less annoy-
ing. And your Minnesotan accent is
wildly off the mark. When the Leb-
owski Bar case hit the news it raised
the wider issue of poor treatment of
young workers by some employers.
Hitt húsið, a city-run
o r g a n i z a t i o n
for peer education and youth culture,
has started a summer program where
young people go and teach teenage
workers their rights. In an interview
with state radio RÚV, the two youths
who go out to educate told about some
of the bad practices they had encoun-
tered. Most common was underpay-
ing for nighttime and weekend work.
Also common were unpaid trial days.
Another depressing issue, thankfully
rarer, was gender discrimination, with
reports that male applicants were
not given a chance in bakeries and
ice cream shops, and of women being
asked to go home if they had too much
or too little make-up, or pants that
were too wide.
Oh damn, that's just straight-up de-
pressing.
Sadly, the ill treatment of young work-
ers has a long history
in Iceland. In
small fishing villages during the 20th
century, children were expected to
leave school to help with the unload-
ing of trawlers. Starting in the late
1930s and continuing through the
‘80s, most city children were sent to
stay summer-long on farms. The idea
was that they would learn good work
habits, but in effect they were there as
free labour for the farmers, replacing
the agricultural workers who relo-
cated to Reykjavík and fishing villages
in search of higher wages. Many chil-
dren were injured, or worse, and many
adult Icelanders still suffer the effects
of this practice to this day.
But didn't children love going to
farms? Playing with animals, run-
ning around fields and, uh, whatev-
er it is that kids do on farms. I only
know the world through movies.
Many did indeed love their experi-
ences, but they were never given a fair
wage for the amount of work they did.
Young people generally do not know
the full extent of their legal rights
and some employers take advantage
of that.
This will not stand, ya know, this
aggression will not stand, man.
Well, at least you managed to stop
quoting 'The Big Lebowski' for
a few seconds. Unfortunately,
there is no way to monitor
whether employers are pay-
ing their staff according to
the rules. Sometimes a simple
complaint is enough to make
the employer pay up, but the
labour union Efling says that
half of the cases go to court,
and sometimes the underpaid
workers never get their money.
Maybe this issue would get fixed
if underpaid workers would show
up at their employers' houses unan-
nounced and pee on their rugs. Damn
it, now you have me referencing that
film too.
Iceland | For Dummies
A whole new angle on the ever-
brewing Ministry of the Interior
scandal came to light when it was
reported that Interior Minister Hanna
Birna had contacted then-Commis-
sioner of the Capital Area Police Stefán
Eiríksson, in person and by phone, in
part to ask if police could be trusted
with ministry files, and when their in-
vestigations would end. Cue media
maelstrom, replete with Parliamentary
Ombudsman Tryggvi Gunnarsson for-
mally requesting the minister explain
herself. At the time of writing, the Om-
budsman is still waiting for a final an-
swer from Hanna Birna, who had until
August 15 to respond.
Former Prime Minister Geir H.
Haarde hit the diplomatic jackpot
when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
appointed him to an ambassador-
ship, with some sources indicating
that he will be stationed in Washing-
ton, D.C. Not too bad for a guy who was
found by a court of law to be guilty of
negligence during his time in office.
Iceland’s love-hate relationship
with tourism has also been get-
ting attention in the news lately. Even
the Director General of the Icelandic
Tourist Board, Ólöf Ýrr Atladóttir, be-
lieves the industry has been growing
too quickly for our tiny little island to
handle, while Jóhann Már Sigurbjörns-
son, the chair of the Renters’ Associa-
tion of Iceland, claims tourism is hav-
ing a negative impact on the rental
market. Even off-road driving has
become a subject of concern related
to tourism. So far, no tangible solutions
have been offered as to how to make
tourism more sustainable.
It seems that Iceland’s govern-
ment and its president are at odds
over foreign policy. Just days after For-
eign Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson
announced that Iceland would contin-
ue to support Ukraine, even in the face
of an import ban imposed by Russia,
By Paul Fontaine
— Continues —
8
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12 — 2014
So What's This Unfair Treat-
ment Of Young Employees I
Keep Hearing About?
Words by Kári Tulinius @Kattullus
Illustration by Lóa Hjálmtýsdóttir
NEWS IN BRIEF
EARLY AUGUST
TEMPL AR ASUND 3
BREAKFAST,
LUNCH & DINNER