Klarna employees in Sweden announced a strike in November
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Klarna, a buy now, pay later giant, is facing problems in Sweden, where its employees are threatened with a strike starting on November 7, if the company fails to reach an agreement with them.
Reports say that the Unionen and Swedish Engineering unions have announced that their members, some of whom work at Klarna, will go on strike if the firm doesn’t hear them out and make appropriate changes.
Unions claim that Klarna attempted to delay negotiations
Unionen stated that the goal is to reach a collective agreement affecting working hours, employment, vacations, and job security. The unions have been trying to negotiate with the company since March of this year, but efforts to improve working conditions for Swedish workers have been going on for years.
The union’s head of negotiations, Martin Wastfelt, stated that Klarna has canceled and postponed a number of negotiation opportunities throughout the process. The company failed to put in the appropriate effort even to attempt to reach a deal, and it never fulfilled the commitments to which it did agree in the past. He said that “It takes two to have something to negotiate on.”
Förhandlingarna om kollektivavtal på @Klarna har brutit samman, berättar @Unionen .
– Det krävs två för att ha något att förhandla om, säger Martin Wästfelt, Unionens förhandlingschef.https://t.co/1jumPYl6ew— Kollega (@Tidn_Kollega) October 23, 2023
Now, the unions have lost their patience, and they see no other option besides announcing a strike until their demands have been taken seriously.
Klarna CEO says that the unions are their members to strike
Sebastian Siemiatkowski, the CEO of Klarna, stated on X that the firm’s employees are in shock, as they believed that they can decide for themselves whether they want to strike or not.
He states, “The union says they will be locked out and lose their pay if they don’t strike. The union says they will be put on a list and will not be allowed to become members of any other union ever again unless they strike So far, the unions aren’t announcing specifically which employees those are, and those who aren’t in those unions are worried about what’s going on This creates enormous stress on our employees and our primary focus is their well-being.”
Med anledning av varslet är det så klart många frågor just nu!
Primärt fokus för oss just nu är våra anställda som är i chock över att:
De har trott att de själva får bestämma om de vill strejka eller inte
Facken säger att de blir uteslutna och förlorar sin ersättning om de…
— Sebastian Siemiatkowski (@klarnaseb) October 26, 2023
In other words, the unions are forcing the employees to go on strike, or else they would suffer consequences, according to Siemiatkowski.
So far, Klarna has not said how many people it employs in Sweden. However, the unions estimate that the number is at around 2,000 individuals. The unions did not say how many of those workers are their members, but given that joining the union is not mandatory for Swedish workers, chances are that not all of them are.
