National Conciliator Anu Sajavaara sat down to broker months-long collective bargaining talks between Riku Aalto of the Industrial Union (right) and Jarkko Ruohoniemi of the Technology Industry Employers of Finland in Helsinki on 12 February 2025. On 20 February, the office of the national conciliator announced the talks have yielded a provisional agreement. (Heikki Saukkomaa – Lehtikuva)
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NEGOTIATIONS over pay increases in the technology industry have yielded a provisional agreement between the Industrial Union and Technology Industry Employers of Finland, a spokesperson at the office of the national conciliator announced yesterday evening on X.
The Industrial Union on Thursday said it would not comment on the negotiated outcome until it has been examined by its board of directors on Saturday, 22 February.
Technology Industry Employers similarly said it would cast further light on the agreement on Saturday. Jarkko Ruohoniemi, the chief executive of Technology Industry Employers, on Thursday expressed his satisfaction that the negotiations have yielded a provisional agreement after a protracted “wrangle”.
“Both sides at the negotiating table have accepted the deal. I reckon that both sides for their part are pleased or unpleased with the outcome,” he confirmed to Helsingin Sanomat on Thursday. “The good thing is that a negotiated outcome was reached after a long wrangle.”
Riku Aalto, the chairperson of the Industrial Union, was even more tight-lipped, saying simply the negotiations have been long.
“We started negotiating with employers in the technology industry already last autumn, and we’re now in or past mid-February. The negotiation endeavour has naturally been long,” he commented to YLE on Thursday.
If the boards of both interest groups accept the negotiated outcome, it will put an end to a weeks-long series of strikes in the technology industry. The Industrial Union has issued warnings of two more five-day strikes, one starting on 24 February and one on 3 March.
The months-long negotiations between the two interest groups have been watched closely also outside the technology industry because an agreement between them has typically established the framework for pay increases across the economy.
The Industrial Union, alongside other members of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), which includes the Industrial Union, has pursued pay increases of 10 per cent over the next two years, justifying its demands with the effects of rampant consumer prices on the purchasing power of wage earners. Earlier in February, it rejected an offer for increases of seven per cent spread out over the next three years.
Technology Industry Employers, by contrast, has argued that excessive pay rises would undermine the competitiveness of employers.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
