Helsinki (29.01.2010 - Juhani Artto) On January 31 the collective agreement in the municipal sector and several other large and small collective agreements expire. And many more will expire in the next few months.
On Thursday, 30 000 salaried employees in the technology industry received a new collective agreement. It raises their salaries by 0.5 per cent. The agreement includes a new approach on how to solve the dispute concerning what groups of salaried employees the agreement covers. A person from outside (of the parties) will clear up factors that demarcate salaried employees from senior salaried employees.
The dispute concerns thousands of salaried employees who, according to the Union of Salaried Employees TU, lose thousands of euros as their employers applied the agreement covering the senior salaried employees to them.
In December 2009, the Union of Salaried Employees TU organised in the technology a one week strike to add pressure on the employer side. The industrial action covered several major companies, such as Nokia, ABB and STX Finland.
In other agreements -made so far in this bargaining round- pay rises have been between 0.5 and about 1.0 per cent. The employer bastion EK (Confederation of Finnish Industries) declared last year that no agreement should exceed the 0.5 per cent limit but the line has not held. However, in terms of money, the divergences have not been significant. But, for trade union morale, even a tiny move above the 0.5 per cent "pay anchor" has had a good effect.
Around many bargaining tables both/all parties have until now followed a "wait and see" tactic. It has largely been due to the tight control EK exercises over its member association in various industries.