x
The size and the nature of future pay rises is the basic issue which is causing
difficulties in the current incomes policy bargaining. Negotiations were conducted
throughout the weekend, were briefly adjourned in the small hours of Monday morning and
were resumed later on that same afternoon.The
Executive Committees of the central trade union organisations will meet once again on
Wednesday, which is now expected to be a decisive day for the new incomes policy.
Agreements have so far been reached on some of the issues
which are linked to the quality of working life and to improvements in the working
environment. For example, a decision has now been made on the continuation of the
experimental job-sharing schemes for a further two years. However, all other new
initiatives which the trade union movement has brought to the negotiation table remain
unresolved, as does the size of the pay increase. These other initiatives consist of the
request for the Saturday which follows Ascension Day to be treated as a non-working day,
the settling of the rules of play for performance related pay, improvements to the
position of shop stewards, an index clause to be associated with the pay increase and an
incomes progression guarantee.
The failure to agree on the rate of the future pay increase
is based on a difference of 2%. The employees' side has requested a pay rise of 3.8% for
the coming year whilst that of the employers has offered 1.8%. Even the nature of this pay
rise is still open, as each of the three central organisations of trade unions have their
own individual preferences, so that SAK would prefer the pay rise in terms of cash, AKAVA,
the Confederation of Unions for Academic Professionals in Finland, in percentage terms,
whilst STTK, the Finnish Confederation of Salaried Employees, would like it in a mixture
of the two.
Leena Seretin |
