If you have a business in Norway...
Discussion
Prepare to be interfered with or destroyed...
From the BBC website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4429408.stm
Norway in women bosses ultimatum
Norway has said it might close down companies that fail to meet proposed boardroom quotas for women. The new coalition government in Oslo said it was considering introducing a law which would require 40% of boardroom posts to be filled by women.
Norway's previous government drew up the law, which it threatened to apply if companies failed voluntarily to meet minimum quotas by 1 July this year.
Only a fifth of Norway's 590 publicly listed firms comply with the quotas.
"It's not going fast enough," said Karita Bekkemellem, Norway's minister for family and children.
"I don't want to wait 20 or 30 years until sufficiently intelligent men finally appoint women to the boardrooms."
She added: "I wish to establish, from January 1 2006, a system of sanctions which makes it possible to break up companies."
The cabinet of Prime Minister Jen Stoltenberg is due to examine the gender equity law which, once applied, would give companies two years to comply before being threatened with break-up.
Critics condemned the proposed law, arguing it could force some companies to relocate outside Norway.
"The closure of a company is a punishment out of all proportion to the offence," said Sigrun Vaageng, who heads Norway's employers' association.
"In theory, the government can break up a company because it is missing a single woman."
But a spokeswoman for Ms Bekkemellem said introducing the law could be the only way to of ensuring equality in the boardroom.
"It is a question of power," the spokeswoman said, insisting that several surveys had found that companies where both sexes were strongly represented on the board were more profitable.
"For a woman to get in a man must get out.
It is not difficult to find qualified women."
Oh well, at least srebbe64 will have some new customers!
From the BBC website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4429408.stm
Norway in women bosses ultimatum
Norway has said it might close down companies that fail to meet proposed boardroom quotas for women. The new coalition government in Oslo said it was considering introducing a law which would require 40% of boardroom posts to be filled by women.
Norway's previous government drew up the law, which it threatened to apply if companies failed voluntarily to meet minimum quotas by 1 July this year.
Only a fifth of Norway's 590 publicly listed firms comply with the quotas.
"It's not going fast enough," said Karita Bekkemellem, Norway's minister for family and children.
"I don't want to wait 20 or 30 years until sufficiently intelligent men finally appoint women to the boardrooms."
She added: "I wish to establish, from January 1 2006, a system of sanctions which makes it possible to break up companies."
The cabinet of Prime Minister Jen Stoltenberg is due to examine the gender equity law which, once applied, would give companies two years to comply before being threatened with break-up.
Critics condemned the proposed law, arguing it could force some companies to relocate outside Norway.
"The closure of a company is a punishment out of all proportion to the offence," said Sigrun Vaageng, who heads Norway's employers' association.
"In theory, the government can break up a company because it is missing a single woman."
But a spokeswoman for Ms Bekkemellem said introducing the law could be the only way to of ensuring equality in the boardroom.
"It is a question of power," the spokeswoman said, insisting that several surveys had found that companies where both sexes were strongly represented on the board were more profitable.
"For a woman to get in a man must get out.
It is not difficult to find qualified women." Oh well, at least srebbe64 will have some new customers!
I don't believe they'll get that through - even the Scandies - who can be pretty odd - are not so keen to screw up people's lives.
Imagine the situation my business would be in - currently we do not employ any women. The Board is, unsurprisingly, all male. In fact - those of us who own the business are all male. What are we supposed to do? Get a sex change? They'd have to break us up.
I suppose we could appoint our wives to the board and pay them a small fee to attend tha AGM each year...
Peoples lives and livelihoods made "illegal" through no fault of their own. Its so blatantly insane I can't believe they'll do it. If they did - you'd be finding a lot of spouses on boards...
Imagine the situation my business would be in - currently we do not employ any women. The Board is, unsurprisingly, all male. In fact - those of us who own the business are all male. What are we supposed to do? Get a sex change? They'd have to break us up.
I suppose we could appoint our wives to the board and pay them a small fee to attend tha AGM each year...
Peoples lives and livelihoods made "illegal" through no fault of their own. Its so blatantly insane I can't believe they'll do it. If they did - you'd be finding a lot of spouses on boards...
Absolute madness
Sweden is just as bad in many ways.
The Scandinavian countries are an object lesson in what happens when feminism grabs control of the state. High taxation, massive public sector employment, & gender quotas.
If I were a single Scandinavian male I would get out of there quick and emigrate to somewhere sane.
Sweden is just as bad in many ways.
The Scandinavian countries are an object lesson in what happens when feminism grabs control of the state. High taxation, massive public sector employment, & gender quotas.
If I were a single Scandinavian male I would get out of there quick and emigrate to somewhere sane.
Jaglover said:
Absolute madness
Sweden is just as bad in many ways.
The Scandinavian countries are an object lesson in what happens when feminism grabs control of the state. High taxation, massive public sector employment, & gender quotas.
If I were a single Scandinavian male I would get out of there quick and emigrate to somewhere sane.
They really aren't as nutty as that I can assure you! They have high taxation and very high levels of public services because, largely, that's the way they like it! As an example: In a country where to sleep out overnight means death problems like homelessness cannot easily be allowed to flourish like they do in the UK.
Having visited Sweden many times and spoken with Swedes I am not convinced that they are unhappy with the style of society and government that they have.
I wouldn't want the UK to be the same, mind you, but I think you are overstating the case that "feminism in government" is having any particular effect. They are the way they are because that is what suits them as a people and it suits the climate and culture of their country.
Don said:
I wouldn't want the UK to be the same, mind you, but I think you are overstating the case that "feminism in government" is having any particular effect. They are the way they are because that is what suits them as a people and it suits the climate and culture of their country.
Women are disproportionately the beneficiaries of the welfare state; they make up a higher share of public sector employees and are the recipients of a larger share of social security benefits.
In the case of the Scandinavian countries their very high public sector spending benefits women most of all, and who is paying the high taxes to support it? for the most part men.
If we add to this gender quotas such as have been described above , is it not reasonable to say the state has been 'feminised' and is in the grip of a feminist philosophy?
los angeles said:
Three and a half million folk and over a thousand cinemas screens, with three film studios, and an average of fifteen home produced movies a year. Not bad, not bad at all. I think we manage one every two years in Scotland, if that. Writers flourish, artists too, with lots of galleries to exhibit their work.
Are they any good though? I've seen plenty of foreign language films, but I don't think I've ever seen a Norweigan one.
Has happened here as well to a certain extent in terms of arts funding etc. Having said that the expenditure in arts funding does seem to have paid off to some extent with films (Although IMO big budget New Zealand films are mostly crap where as the smaller ones seem to be brilliant). Public sector has not grown enough however, not enough police officers, midwives, nurses, doctors and dentists in some areas now (Particularly rural communities).
Mind you the National (read conservative) party seems to be gaining some real momentum now under new leadership so things might change soon. Particularly given the frail alliances within the government now (though at least they kept the greens out this time!).
Mind you the National (read conservative) party seems to be gaining some real momentum now under new leadership so things might change soon. Particularly given the frail alliances within the government now (though at least they kept the greens out this time!).
Don said:
I don't believe they'll get that through - even the Scandies - who can be pretty odd - are not so keen to screw up people's lives.
Imagine the situation my business would be in - currently we do not employ any women. The Board is, unsurprisingly, all male. In fact - those of us who own the business are all male. What are we supposed to do? Get a sex change? They'd have to break us up.
I suppose we could appoint our wives to the board and pay them a small fee to attend tha AGM each year...
Peoples lives and livelihoods made "illegal" through no fault of their own. Its so blatantly insane I can't believe they'll do it. If they did - you'd be finding a lot of spouses on boards...
In my experience, Directors' wives get appointed anyway as some kind of a tax fiddle...
wedg1e said:
In my experience, Directors' wives get appointed anyway as some kind of a tax fiddle...
Its not a tax "fiddle". Its merely a way of getting around the totally ludicrous and unfair sexist bollox that the Inland Revenue call "Personal Allowance". If your wife stays at home with the kids you cannot use her personal allowance to offset against tax. So when you have kids not only does the family income go down - but the percentage of tax you pay goes UP. Grossly unfair - and should be changed for EVERYONE.
Business owners have been able to do something about this for a while by employing their spouses. You can them pay them a wage and use up their tax free allowance.
But the Revenue are wise to this. One's spouse MUST be doing some work/effort for the business (not the Director personally - the business) that is actually worth the money she is paid.
Under some circumstances it is possible to make that effort attending board meetings and assisting in the Direction of the business.
There are so many disadvantages to this strategy, however, that it is not commonly used.
There can be an advantage in having one's wife sit on the board even if she is working and is using up her tax free allowance - if she isn't paid to the extent that she pays higher band tax. One can move income one might pay higher band tax to her lowed band tax by paying her to do work for the business. This is also not commonly used for the same reasons. And the Revenue are most certainly wise to it - the work must be real.
Finally if one's wife is in a higher rate taxpaying job already there is no advantage whatsoever in employing her to anything - unless her skills really mean you want her on the board.
None of the above is a "DODGE." Its all legal and not unreasonable.
DonInLaLaLand said:
One day homemakers' tax allowances will be automatically assigned to their spouses.
Don said:
Its merely a way of getting around the totally ludicrous and unfair sexist bollox that the Inland Revenue call "Personal Allowance". If your wife stays at home with the kids you cannot use her personal allowance to offset against tax. So when you have kids not only does the family income go down - but the percentage of tax you pay goes UP. Grossly unfair - and should be changed for EVERYONE.
TeamD said:
They've obviously got feck all else to worry about in Norway, perhaps we should declare war with them so they have something useful with which to occupy their time.
Please do, just give me a weeks warning.... so I can get myself a british passport and a highlevel rank within your military. Would ask for a sniper-rifle aswell, some of the women ..... well they are all politicians, I'll take no chances, and take them all out( in the name of equality, see
) Politicians.... well actually it isn't their fault, we have a democracy(spell. inten.) so go for the ones who woted them in............
cymtriks said:
... it was considering introducing a law which would require 40% of boardroom posts to be filled by women.
...
I would have thought it should be male or female which should be 40% altherwise all the "felame only" companies would not be obliged to put a male on the board. Would be a lot more fair.
Next they will start having quotas for disabled, gay, single/married/divorced/etc and get into a right muddle.
Bob
nonegreen said:
Great news some Norwegian companies will be closed and leave a gap in the market. Same effect as Kengestion charging. Only good kind of sandalist is the dead kind.
Well, let's just put that on the back burner for now. I suggest we hit it with a leaflet campaign and hit it hard.
groucho said:
Great news some Norwegian companies will be closed and leave a gap in the market. Same effect as Kengestion charging. Only good kind of sandalist is the dead kind.
Well, let's just put that on the back burner for now. I suggest we hit it with a leaflet campaign and hit it hard.
I say we strap a Nuclear warhead to my forehead and I just Nut them.
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