Trade union confederation SAK announced it was ready to join in tripartite negotiations for a ‘social contract’ aimed at making business and industry more competitive. Earlier on, trade union confederation of salaried employees STTK and the white-collar academic trade union confederation Akava had announced that they were ready to take part in talks. Notwithstanding this positive attitude, the attempt to draft a social contract for the labour market failed. Both, the prime minister and the employers’ associations called for longer working hours without any pay rises. The employers also proposed several other ways to cut pay. Besides, the government programme promises to fulfil one of the employers long time wishes, to remove legal obstacles for short fixed term employment. These positions blocked a deal with the trade unions.
English: http://heikkijokinen.info/en/trade-union-news-from-finland …
http://yle.fi/uutiset/sak_ready_for_talks_on_broad_labour_accord …
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.