The Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff YTN and the Technology Industry Employers of Finland have approved the new collective agreements for the technology industry, the design and consulting sector, and the information technology service sector. In addition, several negotiations are underway both in industry and in the service sector.
The Negotiation Organisation for Public Sector Professionals JUKO has also reached an agreement with the state on the collective agreement and collective bargaining agreement on civil servant salaries for the new agreement period.
Teemu Hankamäki, TEK’s Labor Market Director and Chair of the Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff YTN, finds the achieved results tolerable.
“An especially important and good achievement was including the family leave reform in the collective agreements, so that the length of the former paternity leave, now called paid leave of the non-birthing parent, increased significantly. This will hopefully support the realization of the reform’s goal, which is that family leave would be divided more evenly between both parents than is being done now,” says Hankamäki.
“However, this change to the collective agreements did not come for free, as we had to make changes requested by the employer side to the text part of the agreements, which vary slightly from agreement to agreement.”
Salary increases are not fully satisfactory.
“Money is important, and expectations were certainly high among our members. The agreements guarantee total salary increases of 3.5 percent for the current year and 2.5 percent for the following year. A one-time compensation will also be paid this spring. Whether purchasing power will decrease depends partly on the inflation trend, but we have tried to prevent it now with negotiated pay increases.”
Something positive can be found in the negotiation round as well.
“It is good that we managed to agree on a two-year agreement, as it brings more stability than a one-year agreement. Of course, we will only know in 2024 how good the agreement actually turned out to be.”
How do you feel now?
“Somewhat relieved, even though the round is not yet finished. The technology industry agreements are the best they can be when considering the time and information available. After all, negotiation results can never be considered good, as neither party gets all of their goals through in the way that they want.”
What do you have in store for next time?
“Next time, we could agree on things related to coping and well-being at work, for example. They were pretty much sidelined now, as the employer side did not want entries regarding them in the collective agreements.”