1/2009

Editorial

A challenging round of agreement
negotiations ahead

Kerttu Pellinen
Chairman of the Association of the Finnish University and Research Establishment Staff (YHL)

A challenging round of agreement negotiations ahead Preparations for the agreement period beginning in less than a year are getting into full swing. It seems that a collective agreement will not be reached in the near future despite initiatives to that end made by the Government and the labour market confederations. For that reason, target plans will be drawn up with sectoral agreements in mind. No doubt, new targets for the agreements will be formulated; in addition, the not yet realized old targets are to be kept on the lists. This time in particular, the contents of the agreements are to be paid attention to, not forgetting salary targets either.

The next round of agreement negotiations concerning YHL members is particularly challenging; next year the field of agreements applying to our members is even more varied. Next year some of our member associations remain within the collective agreement for government, the staffs of TAY-Palvelut Oy and Certia have their own specific private sector agreements
whereas the agreements to be applied to universities have not yet taken shape. The principal targets for agreements on all sectors are most likely to be uniform, but the special aspects and development needs of each agreement will definitely affect the details under negotiation. We believe that conditions at least at the level of the former employment relationship should be included in all agreements to be negotiated, both the old and the new.

Uniform working hours for university staff is one of our main targets. The yearly working hours of laboratory and property maintenance personnel are a couple of weeks longer and their hourly wage smaller than those of the majority of university staff.
Unjustifiable unequal treatment of personnel continues although the job grading of the common pay system would necessitate that the same wage be paid for jobs graded at the same level. In these new circumstances, personnel representatives are likely to have even more to do than we can imagine. Therefore, it is especially important that appropriate means for their functioning effectively as well as their entitlement to receive information be secured for them in both the new agreements and those to be renewed.

We have busy spring and autumn full of activity ahead of us but working together we will get through this year.

Wishing you all energy and ability to cope!