DN was able to reveal last year that non-political officials at the government office could receive higher wages if they worked to enforce the Tidö Agreement.
This according to the salary directive sent out to heads of the ministries.
The wording drew strong criticism from employees and from the union.
During Friday’s hearing in the Riksdag’s Constitution Committee, Ulf Kristersson says that he himself was not involved in any discussions about the salary criteria.
– The wage directives were agreed with my state secretary, he says.
The reconciliation was done, according to Kristersson, to ensure that the right skills are available at the government office – for example, enough legal experts to be able to launch the new legislation included in the Tidö Agreement. He mentions the fight against organized crime as a priority area.
Photo: Christine Olsson/TT
The Prime Minister says that the Tidö Agreement and the Government Declaration have been taken up as examples of things that can be included in the criteria and apologizes if there has been any ambiguity. He believes that this is an obvious misunderstanding.
After the hearing, Kristersson told DN that the purpose was to make it clear that the government office must have the resources to cope with the tasks the agency faces – tasks that vary over time.
– Sometimes they can vary depending on the political reform agenda that a government has and sometimes due to external events, he says.
Doesn’t it become politicized when it is not clear that the Tidö Agreement and the government declaration were examples?
– That was probably what the head of administration was self-critical about. That it should have been described as an example and not as something else. It was subsequently corrected. That there was a lack of clarity is obvious, says the prime minister.
Earlier in April have the government office’s head of administration, Henrik Holmer, has been questioned by the committee. He then said that there were a couple of things that they could have handled better – including the dialogue with the union.
– Of course, it was never the intention to give the direction that employees in the government office should be rewarded solely for working with the Tidö Agreement or any other designated area, he said at the time.
He also said that the answer was a clear no from the political leadership to the question of whether employees who would work with the Tidö agreement would be specially rewarded.
It was the Social Democrats, the Green Party and the Left Party which jointly reported Kristersson to KU.
– It is the non-political civil servants who must stand for independent evidence and stand for smooth changes of government, regardless of the government’s political composition, Amanda Lind, democracy policy spokesperson for the Green Party, previously told DN.
Read more:
The Government Office’s new directive: Those who work for the Tidö Agreement can receive a higher salary
Kristersson on Tidölönerna: “KU can investigate whether everything went right”
Facts.From the Government Office’s wage directive
“In this context, the employer refers to particularly attentive, skilled employees who work within parts of the Government Office where the supply of skills is deemed particularly important to achieve the business’s goals and requirements and to assist the government in the implementation of its political priorities as they are expressed in the government declaration and the Tidö Agreement”, it says in the directive.
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Tags: Kristersson Temporary salaries Obvious misunderstanding
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