Lauri Lyly (SDP) and Saara-Sofia Sirén (NCP) of the Parliament’s Employment and Equality Committee held a press conference in Helsinki on Tuesday, 10 December 2024. The committee has sided with a government bill that, by effectively imposing stricter limits on the labour dispute conciliation, has stirred up concerns especially in female-dominated sectors. (Markku Ulander – Lehtikuva)
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THE FINNISH PARLIAMENT’S Employment and Equality Committee has given its backing to a bill that delineates the remit of the national conciliator and conciliation boards in resolving labour disputes, reports YLE.
The committee backed the bill despite opposition from all members of the Centre, Green League, Left Alliance and Social Democrats.
The bill dictates that conciliation has to protect the overall interests of the national economy by ensuring the functioning of wage formation and labour markets. Effectively the bill would prevent trade unions from securing pay rises that exceed those agreed on in export industries through a conciliation process.
While export industries have traditionally set the cap for raises in other industries, the bill would cement their status as the bellwether for collective bargaining across industries.
Lauri Lyly (SDP), the deputy chairperson of the Employment and Equality Committee, described the bill in an interview with the public broadcasting company as a needless initiative that will tie the hands of conciliation authorities. It also, he added, fails to specify in sufficient detail the meaning of overall interest of the national economy.
“The bill is needless because for the past 60 years the general pay-rise cap has been broken only a couple of times – and even then in the case of public-sector pay agreements,” he said.
Chairperson Saara-Sofia Sirén (NCP) assured that the bill would not restrict the freedom to bargain in the labour markets as labour market organisations will be “completely free” to decide on whether or not to accept a particular settlement proposal.
She added that experts heard by the committee disagreed on how the bill could impact collective bargaining: Some gauged that it would increase labour disputes, others that it would decrease them. Some gauged that it would facilitate bargaining, others that it would complicate it.
The idea of officially capping pay increases to those thrashed out in export industries has drawn criticism from a range of trade unions, particularly those in female-dominated industries. They have been worried that the bill will condemn women to work forever for remuneration that falls well short of that in export industries.
The Social Democratic Party views similarly that the bill would cement the gender pay gap in Finland, according to Lyly.
Sirén acknowledged the gap but argued that because it stems from a pronounced division into men and women’s jobs, it should be addressed with education policy measures rather than the bill on conciliation in the labour markets.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
