JHL (26.06.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) The three trade union confederations accepted the national wage agreement on June 15. This agreement generally defines wages and salaries until next year. As JHL has quite a considerable number of collective agreements, it is now negotiating how to put the national agreement into practise.
The agreement will raise pay by 16 euro a month and at least by 0.43 per cent. This means that incomes of under 3 720 euro a month will get a flat rise of 16 euro and higher salaries will see an increase of 0.43 per cent.
JHL’s goal in these negotiations is to see that pay rates should be clearly established in the municipal and state sectors until the end of June. Other negotiations will be held according to varying schedules, as agreed between the negotiating parties. In some sectors there is already an understanding that negotiations will be held later on in the summer or in the autumn.
The main issue in the negotiations is not how much pay levels will rise, as this has already been agreed. But as collective agreements tend to vary, careful calculation and adjustment is necessary in order to keep everything within the general line. Also, the length of the collective agreement has to be taken into consideration when deciding the exact amounts for new salaries.
Even though the increases in pay are extremely moderate, JHL is mindful that they, as a union, also signed up to the national agreement. And this is an agreement, which will offer better pay increases to those on smaller incomes, and one which is in line with JHL policy. The average pay for JHL members is 2 300 euro a month.
Håkan Ekström, the JHL Head of Bargaining for the municipal sector estimates in his blog on the JHL webpage that the net real income of those with a salary of under 2 500 euro a month will rise from 0.1 per cent to 0.9 per cent in the next year.
This figure takes into account the new salaries, changes in taxation and higher employees' unemployment insurance contribution.