The number of days of family leave is defined by law, but whether the leave is paid or not is defined in the collective agreements negotiated by trade unions.
In the spring of 2023, TEK (Academic Engineers and Architects in Finland), together with other YTN unions, negotiated for more equal paid family leave for all their collective agreements in the private sector agreed at the time. Later, TEK and other JUKO unions negotiated to make these terms apply also to the municipal, wellbeing services county and central government sectors.
The Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff (YTN) is a private sector negotiation organization at Akava. It is made up of 20 unions, including TEK. JUKO is a negotiation organization for public sector professionals at Akava. It consists of 35 unions, including TEK.
Thanks to the collective agreement negotiations, the non-birthing parent’s paid leave was extended to 28–36 working days, varying by field. The birthing parent will receive approximately three months of paid leave also in the future. Terms related to family leave were also changed to be gender-neutral in the collective agreements.
“This is the greatest achievement of my six-year career as a negotiator! Allowing fathers to take more time off and taking diverse family types better into account is very important for equality. When fathers are encouraged to take more family leave, it becomes the norm, and employers no longer see hiring women as such a big risk. It is just as likely for a man to go on a long family leave,” says Tuula Aaltola.
Aaltola works at TEK as a collective agreement expert in the private sector. At YTN, Aaltola is responsible for collective agreements in the consulting sector and took part in last spring’s collective agreement negotiations.
“Making paid family leave more equal was not a given in the negotiations. It’s difficult to say what the employers were actually thinking. The negotiations are full of theatrics: everything the other party asks for is seen as impossible, expensive and absurd. The employers were against expanding the right to family leave,” says Aaltola.
Aaltola understands that long absences are expensive and difficult for employers, for example due to substitute arrangements. However, Aaltola says that the employers’ costs will not increase as much as one might think. The employer can submit an application to Kela, requesting the parental allowance to be paid to them for the leave period. The employer may also be entitled to a family leave reimbursement of 2,500 euros.
When negotiating with some of the sectors, Aaltola says that they had to pay quite a heavy price for more equal family leave. In return, the employers wanted adjustments to be made to change and layoff negotiation times, for example.
“However, I believe that more equal and gender-neutral family leave is very well in line with the values of many employers. Good family leave practices can be a competitive advantage for employers,” says Aaltola.
When the outcome of the negotiations in the consulting sector was made public, Aaltola received messages filled with hearts from many men.
“Fathers of small children were absolutely delighted. The amount of paid leave they now have increased from one week to five weeks.”
The family leave rights of adoptive and rainbow families, for example, also improved. Before the negotiations in the spring of 2023, the technology industry’s collective agreement contained no provisions regarding paid leave for adoptive parents. The consulting sector’s old collective agreement recognized the adoptive father’s right to family leave, but not the adoptive mother’s.
The next round of negotiations on collective agreements for professional and managerial employees in the private sector will start next autumn. Aaltola predicts that the main focus of the negotiations will be on salaries.