Joint unemployment insurance for LO affiliates possible

Several motions have been submitted to the LO Congress suggesting a joint unemployment insurance for the LO collective. This week the LO Executive Council made a statement of opinion on this issue. The Executive Council assents to the objective of the motion, but wants to await making the decision on an unemployment insurance for all the LO affiliates until the economic and political conditions are more stable.

The non-Socialist Government’s impairment of the unemployment insurance will be one of the topics to discuss at the LO Congress in May-June. Several motions condemn the fact that the economic security is being undermined and that the solidarity notion of the insurance will be sapped.

- An unemployment insurance, in which the fees are calculated on the rates of unemployment figures within each respective sector, results in great injustice between the different wage groups. This is, according to LO, unacceptable. The unemployment insurance should therefore be remodelled in such a way that the financing is based on solidarity to equalize the risks between different groups, LO President, Wanja Lundby-Wedin says.

The proposal for a joint unemployment insurance was discussed by the LO General Council alredy in the spring of 2007. It was then decided to investigate the preconditions. The proposal is therefore that the Executive Committee continues to monitor the issue and comes back to the General Council when there is more information on the economic conditions of the insurance. The objective of the Executive Committee is to come back to the General Council with proposals in the autumn of 2008.

The LO Executive Committee wants to await stating their standpoint for several reasons. The political shakiness due to the non-Socialist Government’s actions is great. The Government has introduced a number of changes as for example lower state subsidies and plans to introduce a compulsory unemployment insurance.

- These insecure conditions for the unemployment insurance offices imply that the LO affiliates cannot foresee the economic consequences, Wanja Lundby-Wedin says.