Marianne Midthus ?stby

Nominators

• Gina Susanna Clausen, Senior Adviser, MED

• Haneef Awan, Senior Adviser, MED

• Mari Hel¨¦n Var?y, Senior Executive Officer, MN

• Dag Vargset, Works Coordinator, Landscape Services, EA

• Kristina Enge, Senior Executive Officer, LOS/AF

• Olav Hoemsnes, Senior Adviser, OD

• Gyda Kjekshus, Senior Adviser, USIT

• Caroline Hals, Senior Executive Officer, SV

• Ellen Dalen, Principal Trade Union Offical for NTL, UiO

Election platform

My motivation for standing for election to the University Board at the University of Oslo (UiO) is to contribute to ensuring that the decisions made by the Board are based not only on financial needs, but also on the consequences for employees and their needs. It is important for me to ensure that proposals that are put to the University Board are properly researched, and that their impact is properly assessed before a decision is made.  

UiO faces many challenges at all times, and it has to make adjustments on an ongoing basis to succeed in fulfilling its societal role. Restructuring in a workplace as large as UiO has an impact on subjects, functions and employees alike. In order to succeed in restructuring, the processes must have broad support in the organisation and among employees. The decision-making processes must be clear. These are points I will advocate in the University Board.

Challenges at UiO

The technical and administrative positions are important for ensuring that UiO can achieve its goals, and I have concerns about the employees' working situation when I see that UiO is pursuing an approach that includes:

• the outsourcing of services
• a tougher human resources policy, and
• the extensive use of temporary staff.

Outsourcing

I will work to oppose the outsourcing of technical and administrative services and cleaning services.

I will work to make sure that UiO honours its employer responsibilities for all the tasks and services it needs to deliver in order to support research and teaching activities. In my opinion, there are both financial and quality arguments for opposing outsourcing. There are no grounds for claiming that outsourcing provides particular opportunities for making savings. Nor will the quality of services necessarily be better by moving them out of UiO, rather the contrary. If the employees care about UiO and the jobs they do, the quality of the services delivered will also be better. In my opinion, it is best for everyone that UiO takes full employer responsibility for all employees working for the organisation.

Human resources policy

In the next period, the University Board will work on a new recruitment and career strategy. This will be especially targeted towards the academic staff, but the outcome will also have an impact on UiO¡¯s human resources policy as a whole, and thus also the technical and administrative staff at UiO. I consider it important to ensure that the new strategies do not undermine the employees' statutory and contractual rights.

Permanent positions

UiO has far too many temporary positions. This is the case not only for academic positions, but also for technical and administrative positions.

I will work to promote an increase in the proportion of permanent positions at UiO. External funding of projects of limited duration is often used as justification for the large proportion of temporary positions at UiO. A large employer like UiO, with some 7000 employees, is both compelled and able to do something about this. Permanent positions are the general rule in the public sector. Employees want their terms of employment to be financially predictable and secure. Moreover, permanent employment is underestimated as a competitive advantage.

Correspondence between allocations and activities

UiO is under constant financial pressure. The basic allocations from the Government are being reduced and the acquisition of external funding is being required to an increasing extent. UiO must strive for predictability within the organisation. It should not be necessary for UiO to keep positions vacant on an ad hoc basis, or to change organisational models so that the budgets break even.

My background

I am a political scientist with organisational knowledge as my main field. I have been employed by UiO since 2005, and have been an elected employee representative since 2009. Both through my job and through my position as an elected representative I know the University well at all levels.  I have participated in several restructuring processes at UiO, and I know how important the right of co-determination is, and I am firmly committed to advocating this right.

I have represented a lot of employees in personnel matters and in wage negotiations, and I have been commended for managing to achieve good results in cases of conflicting interests, where the positions of the two parties have initially been far apart.  I cooperate well with employees and union representatives regardless of which trade union they represent.

I am convinced that a good working environment is essential for achieving good results. I have advocated this in various roles, as HSE representative, HSE coordinator, employee representative, joint representative of the trade unions, representative of the technical and administrative staff on the faculty board, and as an employee providing management support at the Department of Clinical Medicine.

Relevant assignments:

• 2015 ¨C : Faculty board member at the Faculty of Medicine
• 2016 ¨C : Board member in the trade union NTL UiO
• 2013 ¨C : Expert lay judge, the Labour Court of Norway
• 2009 ¨C : Union representative in the trade union NTL, Faculty of Medicine, UiO
• 2009 ¨C : Member of appointments council, Faculty of Medicine, UiO
• 2008 ¨C 2011: HSE representative, Faculty Division, Ullev?l University Hospital, UiO
• 2009 ¨C 2010: Member of the local working environment committee, Faculty of Medicine (MED-LAMU).
• 2008 ¨C 2010: Deputy member of the appointments committee, Faculty of Medicine, UiO