Annual Report 2019-2020

19 E F L I N G A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 1 9 – 2 0 2 0 Efling in nine secondary schools entitled Ég læt ekki svindla á mér ( I won’t let anyone cheat me ) in the autumn of 2019. Almost 400 members of Efling seek the services of the employees of the department of contract compliance in the union’s office each month. Also, the staff of the department answer over 300 emails each month via the address kjaramal@efling.is . Last, but not least, the union members seek the counseling of the staff of the wage affairs division via telephone and those calls number well over 1000 each month. By these avenues, the staff of the department answer the queries of the members and give them information regarding their rights and responsibilities in the labor market. DISMISSALS WITHOUT NOTICE COMMON Various kinds of cases were brought to the attention of the department of contract compliance during the operating year. Among them were the 143 dismissals without notice, most of which happened within com- panies in the hotel- and restaurant business. Many of them ended up in the so-called wage claims process, which is to say that the union was tasked with collect- ing the wages owed to the union member in question for the notice period, as the member was not given work by the employer during the notice period and therefore the dismissal was illegal. Cases per month January February March April May June July August September October November December 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 The staff of the department sent more than one hundred letters to the representatives of companies to remind them of the rights which collective agree- ments stipulate, such as the right to sick leave and vacations, to name a few. The union issued almost 700 claims to companies for underpayment of wages according to collective agreements or the employment contract. These claims amounted to over 345 million kronas. The average claim is for 492,000 kronas, which is the equivalent of one and a half monthly wage for approximately 700 individuals earning a minimum wage. Most of the claims were issued towards com- panies in the travel industry, that is, restaurants, hostels and other related services. The union’s lawyers were given 370 cases for further collection and the wage claims in these cases amounted to just under 290 million kronas. Many claims, amounting to about 80 million kronas, were issued because of company bankruptcies. In those cases, the claim was sent to the liquidator and if nothing is subsequently received from the bankrupt estate then they are sent to the wage guarantee fund ( Ábyrgðarsjóður launa ). Members of Efling number almost 27,000. The employees of the department of contract compliance assisted almost 1100 of them in 2019. The members are of 56 nationalities and most of the cases involved union members of Icelandic and Polish origin.