Finland - State sector unions avoid pay freeze - March 18, 2010

Negotiations in the state sector were initially difficult as the government wanted to freeze pay over the next two years. However, the unions managed to negotiate increases in pay and protection of the employment status of civil servants in light of the major reforms taking place across the state sector. The agreement runs from 1 March 2010 to 29 February 2012. An across-the-board-increase of 0.55% will be paid as of 1 March 2010 and an agency-specific instalment of 0.43%, which is to be agreed and implemented locally, will be paid on 1 September 2010. The agreed increases for the year 2010 are in total around 0.98%. Increases for 2011 will be negotiated by the end of January 2011. Antti Palo, President of Pardia, the Federation of Salaried Employees, called the outcomes satisfactory.

English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/358; http://www.pardia.fi/in_english/?x126=1404172

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI atwww.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2009.