Archive

Helsinki (02.04.2020 - Heikki Jokinen) Redundancies and temporary lay-offs due to the coronavirus pandemic are rising at an alarming pace.

On 1 April, some 9,000 employees have been made redundant since 16 March and the number of temporary lay-offs was 58,000.

A total of 3,670 companies have called for co-operation negotiations, as the law requires, to negotiate on further temporary lay-offs or redundancies. On 2 April, this threatens the employment of 332,973 people.

These figures have been furnished by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. And they only include companies with 20 or more employees, as smaller companies do not have to report their temporary lay-offs and redundancies to the authorities.

Helsinki (20.03.2020 - Heikki Jokinen) The process involving temporarily lay-offs should be provisionally conducted swiftly in private companies, the Finnish labour market organisations are proposing.

The reason for this is clear: due to the coronavirus pandemic a big number of companies are in serious economic turmoil and might face bankruptcy if immediate steps are not taken to reduce their costs.

On 16 March, the Finnish Government declared a state of emergency restricting the movement of people. This and other measures against the spread of coronavirus have caused a sudden and serious liquidity problem in many companies, especially in services.

Published on 18 March, the proposal by the labour market organisations was unanimous. It has the full backing of all three trade union confederations Akava, SAK, STTK and both employers' associations EK and KT.

Helsinki (19.03.2020 - Heikki Jokinen) The Coronavirus pandemic is having an effect on the ongoing collective bargaining round, too. Agreements in industry and private services are more or less ready or approaching a decision, but very much open in the public services.

Several public services collective agreements are expiring at the end of March. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the public sector economy will face major challenges in the near future, and this does not make negotiations any easier.

There are different proposals as to how to cope with the situation. Tehy - The Union of Health and Social Care Professionals in Finland and Super - the Finnish Union of Practical Nurses propose that the collective bargaining in local government and private sectors should be interrupted due to the pandemic and a state of emergency declared by the Finnish Government on 16 March.

Helsinki (12.03.2020 - Heikki Jokinen) There is clear evidence that the income gap between employees and publicly listed company chief executives has widened significantly in the past year. Now, a private sector employee must work for 47 days to earn what a major listed company CEO earns in a day. A year before, it took 34 days' work.

March 9 was the moment at which the average private sector employee earnings of this year surpassed a private company chief executive’s daily pay. A year before the date was February 18.

The figures are calculated annually by the Finnish Confederation of Professionals STTK. They take into account the longer working hours of CEOs, too. The calculations are inspired by the Fat Cat Day in the UK.

Helsinki (03.03.2020 - Heikki Jokinen) By now, most of the industry sectors have agreed upon new collective agreements. For example, the Industrial Union announced on 24 February that they have reached a resolution in negotiations for all of their collective agreements in the technology sector.

Trade Union Pro has also made new progress in collective bargaining, being able to close some deals and move forward in other negotiations. The employers are finally ready to negotiate and strike a deal with Pro, after a long period of reluctance to do so.

Signs of an end to the deadlock in the private services sector are also apparent after Service Union United PAM reached major agreements for the retail trade and facilities services. However, PAM still has many agreements to negotiate.

Helsinki (25.02.2020 - Heikki Jokinen) Unpaid work will now end in the mechanical forestry industry also, the Industrial Union says. The new collective agreement for sawmills and plywood factories drops the notorious 24 annual unpaid working hours, which was effectively steamrolled into collective agreements in 2016 by Finland's then right-wing Government.

The Industrial Union agreed on 23 February to the proposal made by the National Conciliator. The employers accepted it, too.

The agreement follows the general line of this negotiation round: a 3.3 per cent pay rise with a 25 months agreement. And the unpaid hours are gone.

Helsinki (19.02.2020 - Heikki Jokinen) The press journalists' new collective agreement follows the general line of pay rises and ditching of the 24 unpaid extra working hours included in the old agreement.

On 19 February, the Council of the Union of Journalists in Finland UJF unanimously approved the settlement reached in negotiations with the employers' Finnish Media Federation. They had already signalled acceptance of the deal some days earlier.

The issues at hand were similar to the other negotiations: pay rise level, what to do about the 24 annual extra unpaid working hours appended to the collective agreements under strong political pressure in 2016 by the then right-wing government, and other questions concerning working time.

Helsinki (17.02.2020 - Heikki Jokinen) Just a day before a strike was due to start in the facilities services, the Service Union United PAM reached agreement on a new collective agreement in the sector on 17 February.

The new 25 months agreement will increase pay by 2.0 per cent from 1 April 2020 and a further 1.3 per cent from 1 April 2021. The troublesome 24 annual extra unpaid working hours - added to the agreement in 2016 as a part of the national competitiveness pact - will disappear at the end of this year.

The employers were successful regarding some questions concerning more flexibility in setting working hours. Details of the deal will be published within a few days.

Helsinki (11.02.2020 - Heikki Jokinen) Three major collective agreement conflicts have ended in agreement. Now there are collective agreements in the chemical and paper industry and for white-collar employees in the technology industry. The pay rise approximates 3.3 per cent generally and with 25 month agreements.

A new collective agreement for the chemical basic industry and oil, gas and petrochemical products industry and plastic and chemical product industry was agreed on 6 February. A strike was scheduled to begin only some days later.

The agreement is valid until the end of 2021 and will raise salaries by 3.3 per cent.

"The pay rise follows the general line in the export industry and the unpaid 24 hour extra annual working time will be deleted completely in the agreement", says Toni Laiho, Sector Director at the Industrial Union.

Helsinki (31.01.2020 - Heikki Jokinen) The long and complicated electricians strike took a step towards a solution. The Board of the Finnish Electrical Workers' Union accepted on 30 January company level agreements with Konecranes and Valmet Automotive.

The electricians strike began on 5 December and has continued ever since. Industrial action is still ongoing at seven companies, like the Meyer dockyard, the Boliden zink factory, SSAB steel factories and the Outokumpu steel factory.

The core issue is union member’s right to their own shop steward. In 2017, the Industrial Union and Technology Industries included the industry electricians terms of work in their collective agreement. The Finnish Electrical Workers' Union then lost  their own collective agreement in respect of some one thousand union members in the industry.