Fifty employees of the City of Reykjavík were dismissed yesterday as part of the final phase of planned workforce reductions, prompting criticism from Helga Vala Helgadóttir over the way the process was handled. Her comments, reported by Mannlíf, focus on how staff were let go, without being given the opportunity to work out their notice periods or say farewell to colleagues.
Helga Vala Helgadóttir questioned why departing employees could not hand over their knowledge to successors. According to Mannlíf and Miðjan, she asked, “Why is it considered normal to throw people out with dirt and shame?”
The City of Reykjavík reduced the number of staff positions by 74 yesterday. Of these, fifty were immediate dismissals. According to DV, these layoffs represented the last of three phases of staff reductions under the current majority administration.
Background
Reykjavík, located on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay in southwest Iceland, has been the centre of the country’s governmental and economic activity since its founding in 1786. The city is run by the City of Reykjavík municipal government and had an estimated population of 140,000 in 2026, with the broader Capital Region home to about 252,000 people.
Sources
- Mannlíf (first reported) in Icelandic
- Miðjan in Icelandic
- DV in Icelandic
Image: Ray Swi-hymn from Sijhih-Taipei, Taiwan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0) · licence, original (resized) Illustrative image.
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