Editorial | Time is running out in technology negotiations

Editorial|Editorial

Technology industry the collective agreement between the employers’ association and SAK’s Teollisuusliitto is valid for the last day on Wednesday. Then the state without a contract begins, which means that labor disputes are also possible in principle. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday. However, the deadline is coming up, because even the texts of the new contract have not yet been agreed upon. Only after that does the handwringing over wages begin.

At least threats of industrial action are even plausible. Teollisuusliitto’s chairman, Riku Aalto, hinted at the industrial struggle when speaking to the Teollisuusliitto’s council on Monday.

It is easy to understand the pain points of the negotiations. The first is still high inflation. Another pain point is the employers’ effort to restore the so-called export-driven model, which took a few years to get used to. The third problem is the solution received for the municipal sector in the summer, which guarantees automatically higher increases for employees of municipalities and welfare regions than what industrial employees get to negotiate.

Trade Union a couple of weeks ago stopped the negotiations on salary increases for the second year with Pami, the service industry union. The employers’ association justified its suspension decision by saying that the level of contracts in the technology industry and the chemical industry must first be found out. According to the trade union, wage increases in the sector must not exceed the increases in the export industry.

Of course, Pam didn’t like the decision. Employers in the technology industry, on the other hand, were very satisfied.

On the employer’s side, there is clearly an effort to restore a model in the negotiations where the export industry both opens the round of negotiations and determines the upper limit of wage increases for other sectors as well.

In Finland, this salary model copied from Sweden has been taught for a few years. Last summer, however, the municipal sector overran and the whole model was overturned: when next year’s increases were agreed upon for the municipal sector first, they were tied to export industry contracts. Municipalities therefore automatically pay more than what the industry agrees with.

Technology industry in the negotiations, it has been carefully monitored what kind of increases will be reached in the most important competitor countries, Sweden and Germany. In Sweden, the Confederation of Industry’s sister organization IF Metall has demanded 4.4 percent increases for one year. In Germany, the employee organization IG Metall has agreed on a total of 8.5 percent increases for two years, and a tax-free one-time compensation of 3,000 euros on top of them.

Employers in the Technology Industry in Finland remind us that in Germany, for many years, there has been no agreement on raises, which always remain at the bottom of subsequent contracts, but only on lump sums.

The salary requirements of the reference countries also give a boost to the Finnish Confederation of Industry’s salary goals. Teollisuusliitto agreed less than a year ago on remarkably moderate wage increases, considering current inflation. The wage earner’s purchasing power is constantly weakening. Also according to Riku Aalto, it is clear that purchasing power cannot be restored all at once. Teollisuusliitto does not aim for such large increases either.

The Technology Industry Employers Association may drag out the negotiations until the end in the hope that the inflation forecasts would decrease a little. Then even salary negotiations could become easier. And if Teollisuusliito’s agreement for the technology industry has not been created, hardly any other sector will make an agreement before then.

The editorials are HS’s positions on a current topic. The articles are prepared by HS’s editorial department, and they reflect the journal principle line.