Reykjavík Grapevine - 29.08.2014, Blaðsíða 6

6
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 1 — 20116
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 3 — 2014
News | Rise Up
Restaurants, bars and clubs in Ice-
land are notorious for the use of what
is known as jafnaðarkaup (“median
pay”)—a form of wage offsetting. By
most collective bargaining agree-
ments in the service industry, a work-
er is supposed to receive a base hourly
wage, plus an extra percentage for
working evenings, nights, weekends
and holidays. Jafnaðarkaup, on the
other hand, sets one hourly wage for
any and all shifts an employee works.
An employer will tell an unsuspecting
employee—almost always a foreigner
or a young Icelander—that it all aver-
ages out in the end. Every labour and
immigrant rights official the Grape-
vine spoke to unequivocally agrees
that it is actually exploitative—as well
as widespread, and seemingly un-
stoppable.
“It is our opinion that people
working in the hospitality indus-
try shouldn’t generally have jaf-
naðarkaup,” Sigurður Bessason, chair
of the trade union Efling, tells us. “We
believe that wage agreements should
be honoured, but the problem with
jafnaðarkaup is that it can be fine if
you always work similar shifts, and
the day and night shifts are itemised
on the pay slip. The problem with it
is that if you have irregular shifts,
where you’ll sometimes work eve-
nings and sometimes days, then jaf-
naðarlaun doesn’t mean anything to
you.”
Hjalti Tómasson, a caseworker
for the trade union Báran, expresses
his misgivings more bluntly. “Jaf-
naðarkaup is an ugly term that keeps
popping up, which in most instances
involves the employees being short-
changed, that’s just the way it is,” he
says. “I do emphasise that this isn’t
true of all employers, many of them
have everything in order and pay the
correct wages, but they then com-
plain about other companies getting
a competitive advantage. Most of the
jobs involved aren’t well paid, which
makes it even more horrible when
staff is paid less than they are due.”
Immigrant workers are
vulnerable
Numerous Grapevine readers, upon
seeing the Lebowski Bar story, com-
mented that this was commonplace
in the service industry, especially
amongst immigrant workers. Some
of them shared stories about being
cheated out of their wages. One read-
er, commenting on the story, wrote:
“I'm also very sad that an Icelander
got an article if this happens, but
[there is] nothing about places where
the boss is cheating and make[s] for-
eigners work without any [payslips]
or fair salary.”
But Sigurður contends this has
less to do with the nationality of the
workers than the industry itself. “I
think it’s more a matter of the indus-
try, which has more immigrant work-
ers,” he says. “We get immigrants and
locals alike. Generally speaking, I’ve
felt that immigrant workers know
their rights as well as Icelanders.
They may take some time to adjust,
but the important thing is for them to
first know where to turn for help.”
Hjalti disagrees that nationality
does not play a part: “It mostly ap-
plies to foreigners because Icelanders
know better—it’s common knowledge
to them that there are unions here,
and regardless of what opinion peo-
ple have of them, they know we have
certain leverage.” He continues: “It’s
first and foremost the foreigners that
are exploited, and it is very troubling
to us to hear how they are treated.
There are stories
that you wouldn’t
believe happened in
Iceland, things you
only see in films;
there are people
that are practi-
cally imprisoned
here, held hostage
by their employers
who they depend on
for their social se-
curity number, tax
card, food and lodg-
ings—if these employees open their
mouths, they are out on the street
with nothing to show for it.”
Knowledge = Power
If foreigners are more likely to be sub-
ject to exploitation than Icelanders
due to not knowing their rights, how
should they glean this knowledge in
the first place?
Immigrants to Iceland need a per-
mit to work. This is obtained from
the Directorate of Labour. While it
may seem intuitive that these would
be the officials to inform immigrants
of their working rights, this is not the
case.
“When a given work permit is is-
sued, the applicant doesn’t receive
any special information or guidance
about immigrants’ labour rights,”
Gísli Davíð Karlsson, who works in
the Directorate’s legal department,
told us. “In the circumstances that
an immigrant contacts the Director-
ate about his labour rights, he can
receive some minimal information.
More extensive information or for-
mal assistance isn’t provided by the
Directorate, but those immigrants are
referred to their relevant trade union
or The Icelandic Confederation of La-
bour (ASÍ).”
ASÍ’s webpage indeed offers an
English language option. However,
it mostly provides general informa-
tion on the union
itself, rather than
the “more extensive
information” they
might expect to find
on the Directorate’s
r e c om m e n d a t ion .
Efling is the same
story all over again—
if extensive infor-
mation in English on
the working rights
of foreigners indeed
exists, it’s certainly
not to be found on their English web-
page.
While Sigurður informs us that
the owners of Lebowski Bar have
since agreed to pay their employees
in accordance with the collective
bargaining agreement for restaurant
and bar workers, both he and Hjalti
expressed a feeling of powerlessness
over what they have come to view as
an increase in service industry work-
er exploitation.
“Of course, we always try to con-
tact the employers, and encouraging
the companies to change their wage
policies, but we can’t ever guarantee
that they won’t make mistakes in do-
ing so correctly,” Sigurður says.
“We’re only allowed to help those
that come to us,” Hjalti offers. “Peo-
ple within the labour movement have
tried to address these matters with
companies that are repeat offend-
ers, but going into the companies and
reaching out to their employees only
reveals our powerlessness.”
Where the law fails
The trade union officials believe their
hands are tied due to labour law itself.
“We have no say over the judicial
system, but it’s certainly the case that
companies bear no responsibility for
paying the correct wages, and maybe
that’s something to reconsider,” ac-
cording to Sigurður.
Hjalti takes much the same tack,
putting responsibility squarely at
the feet of government. “We have
laws that dictate that people need to
be paid according to the contracts in
place, but they aren’t enforced, leav-
ing companies that underpay their
staff free from any consequences oth-
er than paying what they should have
been paying originally,” he says. “We
need legal reform. Disregarding wage
agreements needs to be made not just
illegal, but punishable by law.”
For now, trade unions can only ad-
dress exploitation on a case-by-case
basis, there is no legal recourse if an
employer consistently breaks wage
agreements, and information on what
those agreements even are can prove,
at best, difficult to find (especially for
the average immigrant in Iceland).
Workers brave enough to contact to
seek the resources they need and or-
ganise can be provided with the tools
they need to take control of their
workplaces, but to do that, they need
to know what their rights are in the
first place. So far, there appears to be
little willingness from relevant offi-
cials to get that information into the
hands that need it most.
Earlier this month, a news story broke in the Icelandic media that a young Icelandic girl
working at Lebowski Bar was fired after she asked to be paid minimum wage—effectively
a pay rise over what she was getting. The story sparked shock and outrage amongst many.
To others, it was merely par for the course.
“There are stories that
you wouldn’t believe
happened in Iceland,
things you only see in
films; there are people
that are practically
imprisoned here, held
hostage by their em-
ployers.”
WORKERS
UNITE!
How the service industry exploits
workers, and why nothing is changing
Words by Paul Fontaine and Tómas Gabríel Benjamin