JHL (01.07.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) Negotiations on collective agreements in the Municipal and Central Government sector ended well. The proposals were accepted both by JHL and the Employers' Unions.
On June 15 the Trade Union Confederations agreed to extend the 2013 national agreement on pay for another year, and settled also to keep the latest pay rises at a very low level so as to boost the ailing Finnish economy. Individual trade unions now have a job before them to put the national agreement into effect in their own collective agreements.
JHL has now managed to coalesce its five collective agreements in the municipal sector. Around 429 000 people are affected by these agreements. The municipal sector employs one fifth of all wage and salary earners in Finland. The total amount of salaries and social security costs in this sector comes to 21.2 billion euro.
According to the general public sector collective agreement for local government salaries will be raised from February 2016 by 16 euro a month up to a 3,404.26 euro base salary. For salaries higher than that the rise will be 0.47 per cent. This agreement will come into effect at the beginning of 2016 and remain in place for 13 months.
In the municipal sector the base salary is 66 - 83 per cent of total personal income, depending on which collective agreement is followed.
Benefits for those on low income
JHL chairperson Jarkko Eloranta says that this combination of fixed increases and percentage based pay increases gives better rises to those on smaller incomes. This applies to the majority of JHL members.
”It benefits those working in low-paid sectors where the workforce is primarily made up of women. They will now be getting better wage increases than they would have been getting with an agreement with only percentage based rises.”
The collective agreement for the central government follows along the same lines. Basic salaries will see a rise from the beginning of February 2106 by 13 euros. In real terms this will mean an increase in salaries of 16 euro a month.
For those with a salary of more than 3,023 euro a month they can expect to see a 0.43 per cent rise.
The same 0.43 per cent rise will be included in such wage supplements that are normally defined within a collective agreement.
The fees paid by the employers to the shop stewards and industrial safety delegates will also be raised by 0.43 per cent.