The unions representing municipal employees are ready to agree, even at short notice, to a centralised labour market agreement. However, municipal employees are not prepared to negotiate on the proposal for a zero per cent salary rise, as offered by the leaders of the Confederation of Finnish Industries EK. There has been no wage drift in the public sector, unlike in the private sector, the unions say. For this reason municipal salaries are de facto falling behind the general development of wages and salaries.
English: http://www.jhl.fi/portal/en/news/archive?bid=2670&y=2011
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.