The Finance Sector Union of Norway - With a grip on the future
The Finance Sector Union of Norway is an active, future-oriented and effective trade union for all employees in the finance sector.
We are not affiliated to any political party. Our current membership consists of employees working in banking, insurance, IT, accounting, debt collection, financing, assurance and underwriting. With our 37,000 members and 1300 shop stewards, we are a dominant trade union player in the finance sector.
Our work to serve and protect our members’ interests is based on the following objectives:
- We are to ensure you of secure employment conditions
- We are to handle your vocational, financial, social and working environmental interests
- We are to represent you and promote your views and interests vis-à-vis your employer, trade organisations, public authorities and society in general
- We are to promote good loyalty among colleagues and fair competition
The activities of the Finance Sector Union of Norway are managed by an Executive Committee, which currently has 14 members. The Executive Committee holds meetings approximately once a month.
Why become a member of the Finance Sector Union of Norway?
A modern trade union
- The Finance Sector Union of Norway is the only Norwegian trade union with in-depth knowledge and understanding of the finance sector.
- The Finance Sector Union of Norway uses many resources on forming a picture of the future of the finance sector, including through the use of independent researchers.
- The Finance Sector Union of Norway is a solution-oriented, not a dispute-oriented, trade union.
- The Finance Sector Union of Norway has a high level of political integrity and credibility.
- The Finance Sector Union of Norway is affiliated to the Confederation of Vocational Unions (YS), the Confederation of Nordic Bank, Finance and Insurance Trade Unions (NFU) and Union Network International.
We know something that you don’t
- No other organisation knows as much about the employees’ conditions in the finance sector – independently of the employer. You will benefit from this knowledge.
- We can assist you in connection with your employment terms. We know the pay levels of other employees in the finance sector.
- We can answer the questions that you may have about your job and about the industry in which you work.
Benefit from employee participation
- We have bargained good agreements on employee participation in the companies. This means that, as a member, you will have a unique opportunity to have a say in your own and your colleagues’ working situation vis-à-vis the management.
- Our decentralised agreement structure means that you can influence the shop stewards’ work in the drafting of the agreements that apply to your workplace in particular – both the corporate agreement and the staff manual.
- Through the employee representatives on the company’s Board of Directors, you can participate in influencing the company’s development and strategies.
- You can participate in creating a new, modern trade union. The Finance Sector Union of Norway must develop on a continuous basis. Increased knowledge about this results in increased commitment.
- The Finance Sector Union of Norway is a consultation body for the Ministry of Finance and other public authorities and holds regular meetings with the Finance Committee of the Storting (the Norwegian Parliament). These are the authorities that lay down the framework conditions for the sector in which you work.
- The Finance Sector Union of Norway also has great lobbying clout in political environments regarding established and statutory rights, for example the sick pay scheme. Who are to stand up for the employees if not the trade unions?
- How to handle changes – for example in connection with national or international mergers.
Legal assistance
- The Finance Sector Union of Norway’s legal advisers provide the union’s members with assistance in how to handle their own interests. But it is too late to join the union only once you need its help and assistance.
- Do you know what a lawyer’s services cost? Legal fees are expensive. The Finance Sector Union of Norway will provide you with free assistance in disputes on labour law issues.
- Our legal advisers only give priority to the areas that are relevant to members and shop stewards. This means that we have cutting-edge competence in labour law, pensions, personal safety and the relevant areas of finance and company legislation.
- Our legal advisers have long and good experience in different types of bargaining. Based on this competence, we are able to achieve better results than external advisers could probably have achieved.
- We have the funds and competence necessary to take legal proceedings all the way to the Supreme Court if we feel that there is a basis for this and that it is in the member’s interest. The member will be free from any financial risk in this process. This represents unique legal aid insurance for our members.
- “This will not happen to me” is a bad cliché that does not correspond to real life, not even when you are 26 years old and work in the IT industry. Free legal assistance is your safety net when things go wrong. It is perhaps the best insurance against problems at work.
- We handle “the small print” – you will not have to worry about that.
Rights
- There is a need for concerted action and joint organisations to handle our rights and communicate our views vis-à-vis the decision makers. This applies to society in general and to the individual company.
- As a trade union, we are concerned with protection and modernisation of the current legislation that is especially aimed at handling employee rights, for example the Norwegian Working Environment Act. We handle this task through participation in public committees as well as via public consultations.
- The Finance Sector Union of Norway has in-depth knowledge of the existing legislation in the finance sector and the rules that apply to employee rights. We handle and develop the agreements that many employees today take for granted and that are still “under attack” on the part of employers.
- Are you aware that a collective agreement contains important rights that concern you? These include provisions on pay, working conditions, working hours and training and education.
- The collective agreement gives you more advantages than those generally offered by the existing legislation. These concern schemes and systems for working hours, pay, holidays, full pay during illness, contractual early retirement, study leave, periods off to study for exams, etc.
- You are entitled to support, advice and guidance in connection with excessive work burden and strain, reorganisation and downsizing. The shop stewards can only provide these services to members.
- You can have your rights secured in an early retirement agreement. We will ensure that this agreement is in line with the existing legislation, and we can provide an individual review of the consequences that such an agreement entails.
- You will benefit from the terms and conditions that the trade union has bargained for maternity leave and paternity leave after birth or adoption.
Job security
- You have probably insured your life, your car, your house, your cabin, perhaps even your push bicycle? How about insuring your work situation?
- Membership of the Finance Sector Union of Norway is a good investment. It will ensure you of help when you need it.
- Both the shop stewards and the trade union’s advisers have a duty of confidentiality as consultants. Have you considered that it may not necessarily always be all that easy to bargain pay and other important issues on your own? What happens if you get a new manager? What happens when your financial and personal circumstances change?
- If an industrial dispute situation should arise, the trade union has a sound financial platform.
Ethical and social commitment
- Membership of the Finance Sector Union of Norway gives you a clear conscience. You show ethical and social commitment and involvement – in both working life and other humanitarian issues.
- You show that you care. You are not indifferent to the things that are happening around you.
- Taking collective responsibility for your own workplace and your colleagues is a meaningful experience, especially in a given critical situation.
- You show that you are not only concerned with “me and my own money”. The trade union contributes to humanitarian aid and relief organisations and provides vocational and financial support to trade unions in other countries.
Career
- Are you preoccupied with your career? Of course you are! The Finance Sector Union of Norway focuses on career development and personal development. All shop stewards in the Finance Sector Union of Norway work to ensure that you have opportunities for competence improvement and supplementary training – planned in the best possible way for you.
- Are you aware that supplementary training and competence improvement are necessary in order to remain an attractive employee on the labour market? Age is not the only factor, the competence that you have acquired is also of great importance. The Finance Sector Union of Norway will contribute to ensuring that this becomes simpler for you!
- You will have someone to handle your rights, while you take care of your career. We help you see new solutions and opportunities for your future working life.
- The Finance Sector Union of Norway can advise you on negotiations and conclusion of employment contracts.
- The Finance Sector Union of Norway’s focus on a holistic lifelong employment policy makes career planning easier.
- You can apply for a scholarship from the trade union for work-related further training and education in organisational activities.
- The Finance Sector Union of Norway co-operates with universities and colleges and offers its members exciting weighted study programmes, for example in human resource management.
Special groups
- Our members are not all the same. Special offers are given to each individual member group such as managers with staff responsibility, IT employees and young members.
- If you are a manager with staff responsibility, we offer conferences and seminars where the theme “Quality and Management” has a central position.
- If you are an IT employee, we can offer IT forum participation.
- Young members are offered their own conferences and activities.
Networks - vocational and social
- You will have a unique opportunity to meet colleagues from other geographical departments and across businesses. You will be able to establish networks that you yourself can benefit from – both professionally and socially.
- You will also be able to benefit from the Finance Sector Union of Norway’s extensive co-operation with corresponding trade unions in other countries, especially in the Nordic countries. This network has proved useful when Norwegian companies are acquired by foreign owners.
We know something that you don’t
- We can provide you with assistance in negotiating the best possible terms in connection with a package of measures/outsourcing, etc. We know what other employees in the same situation have obtained.
Shop stewards
- You participate in choosing who is to be the shop steward in your company.
- The shop stewards are the link between you in the company and the trade union in general.
- The shop stewards are given training that provides them with knowledge about the existing legislation and agreements.
- The shop stewards participate in all important decisions in your company. They can answer questions about in-house conditions.
- The shop stewards negotiate the rights and benefits that are to apply especially to your company. These benefits will be added to those provided under the central collective agreements.
- The shop stewards participate in an annual review of the employees’ wages and salaries. In connection with this review, they only consider pay increases and bonuses for those who are members of the trade union.
- The shop stewards work to ensure that the employees receive their deserved share of the values that are created.
- You can also become a shop steward and acquire new knowledge, new influence and new networks.
...And you will also receive
- A welcoming gift when you join the trade union.
- 10 annual issues of Finansfokus. The magazine that has its finger on the pulse of developments in the finance sector.
- Good insurance schemes. The Finance Sector Union of Norway has its own Service Office, which can provide you with advice regarding private insurance. The Service Office offers products of a high standard at competitive prices.
- Discounts on fuel, hotels and security schemes.
- The opportunity to rent fantastic cabins in Sørlandet on the south coast of Norway.
- Great gifts if you recruit new members.
- A tax allowance in your tax return for parts of the trade union dues.
- Offers of local, vocational and social events with themes of current interest.
- Free college courses in human resource management, pedagogy, communication and marketing if you become a shop steward.
- Regular information about the trade union and the finance sector. The Finance Sector Union of Norway has a website that keeps you up to date on the latest news.
The price?
The dues are 1.1% of your gross pay, but currently maximum NOK 280 a month.
Contact us
The Finance Sector Union of Norway
P.O.Box 9234, Grønland
0134 Oslo, Norway
post@finansforbundet.no
Tel. +47 22056300
Are members happier people?
We would venture to say that the Finance Sector Union of Norway’s members are happier than other people!! Admittedly, we are not completely sure that this is the case, but what we do know is that most of our members feel secure knowing that they will receive help if they need it, and if people feel secure, they become more relaxed, and if they are more relaxed, well, this will automatically put them in a good mood. You should join us too.
