"We're just trying to push this forward"

State mediator Ástráður Haraldsson says talks between teachers, and the state and local governments are starting slowly after the parties to the dispute reached an agreement on Friday on how to proceed with the collective agreement and postponement of teacher strikes.

"It's starting slowly. We're very calm, maybe a little too calm for people like me. But we're on track," Haraldsson says in an interview with mbl.is. The negotiating committees met yesterday and today and will probably meet regularly in the coming weeks.

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"We're trying to organize this and figure out in what order we do this. What it is that we need to deal with. We're getting into it," he explains. The conversation is being divided into topics and people are being put into groups.

Strikes postponed by two months

On Friday, the negotiating committees of the Icelandic Teachers' Union, the state, and municipalities signed a so-called framework agreement on how to finalize a collective agreement with the Teachers' Union and the path to the agreement, as Haraldsson put it in an interview with mbl.is.

At the same time, an agreement was made to postpone teacher strikes by two months, or until January next year. But strike action will resume on February 1 if an agreement is not reached by then.

Certain elements are in place

Due to the agreement on Friday, certain elements in the wage negotiations are in place. It has been guaranteed that steps will be taken in 2025 towards equalizing wages between the markets, and wage table increases have also been set, meaning that teachers will follow wage increases in the general market.

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“A very difficult dispute”

“There are certain elements that have come to some sort of a resolution, which hopefully allows us to better isolate the issues that we need to address,” Haraldsson says. However, there is no shortage of complex issues and difficult disputes that need to be overcome.

He says, however, that he has full confidence that the parties to the dispute will reach an agreement on a new collective agreement before the end of January.

“I am optimistic and we are just trying to push this forward.”