Breaking down the percentages reveals what annoys employees, writes HS’s political editor Robert Sundman in his analysis.
In the labor market the devil is in the details. It was last seen on Friday morning, when Teollisuusliitto rejected the national conciliator Anu Sajavaara made a settlement proposal for the salary dispute of technology industry employees.
Read more: Teollisuusliitto rejected the settlement proposal, next week’s strikes are coming to fruition
Sajavaara’s performance was a 6.6 percent package, in which salaries would have been increased by an average of 4.1 percent in the first year and 2.5 percent in the second year
The spring wage negotiations have been held in a situation where the trade unions have demanded wage increases of around five percent. The Employers’ Association of Technology Industries, which represents the employers, would have been ready to accept Sajavaara’s offer, even though it has been said in public that employers tolerate increases of no more than three percent.
Wouldn’t such a package for two years have been a good middle ground that both of us should have taken?
Detail i.e. more precise percentages reveal what annoys employees.
The 4.1 percent increase offered for this year consisted of a general increase of 2.8 percent, a 0.7 percent installment distributed by the employer and a one-time compensation of 250 euros, which would have a cost effect of about 0.6 percent.
Next year’s increase, on the other hand, consisted of a general increase of 1.8 percent and an equal amount of 0.7 percent distributed by the employer.
The general increase increases all salaries, while the 0.7 percent installments are distributed as decided by the employer.
Employees believe that the share of general increases should be higher when inflation eats away at purchasing power.
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The national mediator invited the parties to continue mediation on Sunday.
Technology industry the employees’ agreement is used to be considered a “main opener agreement”. When it is not completed, other negotiations will also stand still.
CEO of employers in the technology industry Jarkko Ruohoniemi it didn’t seem very hopeful that significant progress would be made in the mediation of other areas of the agreement before this.
This also means that the strike sum coordinated by the SAK trade unions for the spring will not recede – and the preparation of new strikes will continue.
The industrial union’s strikes in the technology industry and the chemical industry will start on Wednesday next week. Ammatiliitto Pro immediately announced on Friday that there will be strikes in some chemical industry white-collar jobs in mid-February. Also the Construction Association gave his management the authority to issue a strike warning.
The service industry union (Pam) is issued a strike warning to the trade sector from February 6. The AKT of the Automotive and Transport Industry is also known to have prepared a major strikebut the notification has not been submitted yet.
The longer the negotiation deadlock lasts, the more likely it is that the strike will start to affect the spring election debates and the upcoming parliamentary elections.
On Friday afternoon, the national mediator invited the parties to continue mediation on Sunday.
My own adding spice to the soup is the municipal sector, whose contracts for more than 420,000 wage earners were reached an agreement after the strikes last year.
In a solution that horrified the business world, wages in the municipal sector were promised to be increased by the average of the technology industry, the chemical industry and the truck industry – and another 5.1 percent over five years on top of that.
Salary increases in the municipal sector will also stand still if these anchor contracts are not completed during February. It is recorded in the agreement protocol that if “the contracting parties in the municipal sector cannot reach an agreement on the amount of cost effects” by the end of February, the dispute will be resolved by “an arbitration board, to which each contracting party in the municipal sector appoints two members and calls the national conciliator as chairman”.
So it may be that public sector raises will also be turned again in the midst of other labor market jams.
Read more: The construction union gave its management the authority to issue a strike warning
Read more: Municipal employers accuse EK of “reprehensible influence attempts” and “smear campaign”
Read more: There is about to be a traffic jam at the mediator’s door
Read more: The Ay movement puts pressure on employers with an extraordinary threat
Clarification 28 January 2023 at 15:40: Refined formulation of the settlement proposal made by Sajavaara.
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