JHL (25.08.206 - Heikki Jokinen) No additional cuts to public services within the next three years. This is the core of the greetings JHL is sending to the Government that is now preparing for the state budget for the year 2017.
The Government should desist from making further cuts in financing the public services, weakening services and worsening the situation of employees for the next three years, says JHL President Päivi Niemi-Laine. The cuts concerning holiday bonuses in the public sector had already been agreed on for the next three years.
”It is unfair to threaten that state budget cuts will be looked at again next spring when the competitiveness pact has just come into effect. We expect from the Minister of Finance a full and total commitment to the competitiveness pact and an assurance to stand by it”, Niemi-Laine says.
There is a substantial number of unemployed people in Finland now, Niemi-Laine stresses. The services produced by the public sector are in a key position to get them quickly back to work at full working capacity.
”There must not be any further plans for cuts. Now it is the time to invest in peoples' welfare, and to stop the social deterioration caused by the continuous spiral of cuts.”
The Government cannot expect to dig into employees' wallets for a second time, Niemi-Laine says. They already played their part with the holiday bonus cuts agreed in the competitiveness pact.
Additional redundancies and temporary lay-offs in state and municipal sectors as a result of the Government’s new cuts are unjust and unfair.
”Finland’s success and future depends on the policy the Government chooses to adopt. We need a change of direction now”, JHL President Päivi Niemi-Laine says.