Strike, Finland

The Tehy and SuPer nurses’ unions have confirmed the dates for the second period of industrial action following the first set of strikes launched on 1 April. The next stage will begin on 20 April and end on 4 May and will affect specialised medical care in 13 hospital districts, with approximately 35,000 nurses on strike. The postponement is to allow the Conciliation Committee sufficient time for mediation. The severe shortage of nurses in areas like elderly care means that this sector will be excluded from the strike as the unions point out that the staffing levels regulated by law are often

The Super and Tehy health unions are maintaining their ban on overtime and shift changes following their rejection of the proposed deal for health and local government. They continue to press for higher pay increases as essential to help tackle the urgent staff shortages in health and social care. Meanwhile, municipal unions JHL and Jyty are also keeping up their industrial action despite their provisional approval of the agreement. They are pushing for the agreement to be finalised and for the expected payments to be made by the summer, arguing that workers could lose out by over €300 if pay

The JHL public services union has successfully defended the pay and conditions of workers employed by the Arkea municipal company that provides catering and other services to the Turku local authority. The company had sought to change collective agreements that would have meant significant changes to pay rates with some workers potentially losing out by as much as 30% of their earnings. The strike action led to negotiations with the company which will now stick with the current agreement which is due to be re-negotiated next spring.

The collective agreement covering the municipal sector has now been finalised and runs from 1 May 2022 to 30 April 2025. EPSU affiliates JHL and Jyty report that salaries will increase this month by €46 per month for those on less than €2300 a month and by 2% for salaries above this amount. Allowances will also increase by 2%. A pot of 0.5% will be distributed in October depending on negotiations in September. If the negotiations don’t produce a result the 0.5% will be a general increase for all. Next year and in 2024 wages will increase by at least 1.5% in June with a further 0.4%, allocated

After three months of negotiations on a new collective agreement for around 20000 personal assistants for disabled people, the JHL trade union is planning industrial action to put pressure on the Heta employers’ organisation. Targeted action is set for 25 and 31 May in the Helsinki area. Meanwhile a ban on additional work, overtime and shift changes will continue and the measures will also impact employers that are not organised by the Heta. JHL says that the pay and conditions of personal assistants are too low in relation to the demanding and wide-ranging nature of the work and are

Nursing and care unions Tehy and SuPer, along with ERTO, are running a campaign of industrial action to put pressure on private sector employers in the social care sector to deliver an improved pay offer. The unions have imposed bans on overtime and shift changes as well as organising strike action with a key aim to reduce the gap between private and public sector pay levels. Tehy and SuPer say that workers in elderly, child and disability care are on pay levels €150-€400 a month less than their public sector counterparts. They say that in the current negotiations the employers’ pay offer

Members of the JHL trade union who work as personal assistants are continuing their strike action in support of better pay and conditions, following the failure of the employers' organisation to come up with an improved pay offer after mediation. The union is pushing for improved pay as a key measure in tackling the high turnover in the sector. Meanwhile, mediation is continuing in the private social services sector following strike action by the TEHY trade union. The union reported that the mediation, begun on 5 June and continuing into 8 June, was making some progress.

The JHL trade union says that further industrial action may be necessary following the failure of conciliation to settle the dispute over a new collective agreement for personal assistants. Negotiations have been continuing since January and the last collective agreement expired at the end of April. JHL has been determined to secure a decent pay rise for worker in this sector characterised by low pay and high staff turnover. Meanwhile, industrial action by unions in the private social services sector – JHL, Tehy, SuPer and Jyty – helped deliver an improved offer from the employers and a 32

The three national trade union confederations – SAK, STTK and AKAVA – are extremely concerned about the new centre-right coalition government’s wide-ranging programme of attacks on trade union and workers’ rights and are planning events and protests in response. The government, which includes representatives of the far-right Finns Party is planning to impose restrictions on sympathetic and political strike action, a €200 fine for individual strikers when a strike is found to be illegal and a dramatic increase in fines on trade union for illegal action. It is also likely that further

The JHL public service union is organising a series of one-day political strikes as part of the continuing campaign by the trade union movement in protest against government policy. The unions are challenging government proposals on changes to welfare and employment rights and threats to weaken the right to strike and impose restrictions on pay bargaining. The strikes will hit different regions over the three-day period 7-9 November. A range of services will be affected including sports facilities, waste services, laundry and catering services, public transport and energy. So far the

The three trade union confederations – SAK, Akava and STTK – have issued a joint statement condemning the proposed reform of the law on collective action. They argue that the changes are designed to upset the balance of the labour market, increase unilateral action by employers and will not improve industrial peace. The confederations say that they will not accept the reforms and that there is no need for a further tightening of rules as existing regulations already impose a range of restrictions. The government wants to limit the rights to political strikes and solidarity action and proposes

The TEHY and SuPer nurses’ unions are stepping up their campaign of industrial action to secure a better pay offer from the municipal employers. The two unions have maintained an ban on overtime and shift changes since before the summer but have now tightened up those restrictions and also announced a series of strike actions beginning with a one-day stoppage in Kanta-Häme in the South West on 2 September. So far three further strikes – each of four days – have been declared in Turku, Helsinki and Oulu with two running from 6-9 September and the Oulu action running from 13 to 16 September. The

The Tehy and SuPer nurses’ unions have responded angrily to plans by the government for legislation that would effectively ban strike action in health and social care. The unions are in dispute with the municipal employers who have rejected a proposal for a five-year strategy to increase pay and tackle the staffing shortage in the sector. In response, Tehy and SuPer have been running a campaign of industrial action and recently announced targeted strike action around the country. Rather than intervene and discuss with employers and trade unions how to resolve the dispute the government is

The TEHY and SuPer nurses’ trade unions have condemned the new law that imposes tougher requirements on industrial action in the care sector. Despite the law, further action as part of the unions’ continuing campaign to secure higher pay took place on 27 September and the unions are determined to pursue their claims with SuPer considering declaring mass resignations in home care. The unions also point out that existing legislation already regulated strike action and so the new law imposes a further burden that targets the care sector specifically. They also argue that, in contrast to the rules