Helsinki 30.10.2013, Heikki Jokinen

Following that most unions and employers associations decided to join the pact; it covers some 93 per cent of the Finnish wage and salary earners. The main union to stay outside is the Finnish Construction Trade Union.

The agreement offers extremely moderate pay rises. All monthly salaries will be raised by a flat rate of 20 euros next year and a year later
salaries will rise by 0.4 per cent.

STTK's member organization Trade Union Pro has been strong supporter of new national agreement. Pro is expecting that it will reduce unemployment and create new jobs. Pro is looking forward to employers to do now their part: invest in Finland and also to keep their current production in the country.

Three years time-out

Mikko Mäenpää, president of STTK sees the pact as a significant step forward in helping Finland get through difficult times. Finland got a
three years time-out, he claims.

”The trade union movement has always been committed to its responsibility for the success of Finland and now it has shown its responsibility by accepting very moderate pay rises that also underline joint solidarity.”

Mäenpää calls for a new Finnish labour market model. We should get rid of the recent style of yes-no discussion of having or not having a
central agreement in the labour market. ”We have to create a new Finnish labour market model that satisfies both parties and where the roles of the local, union and confederation level tasks are clear.”

Possibility of 20,000 new jobs

The Ministry of Finance estimates that this moderate agreement will have the effect of creating 20,000 more jobs in coming years. Director Seija Ilmakunnas of the Labour Institute for Economic Research doesn't see any reason to doubt this optimism.

Ilmakunnas believes that the new agreement will improve the competitiveness of Finnish industry. ”The ability to compete in terms of
price improves as pay rises stay below the countries we are competing with”, she says in an interview with the newspaper Kansan Uutiset.

The pact does not resolve all the problems confronting Finnish industry. The problem is structural, a too narrow assortment of export goods. ” It is important to remember the Finnish export industry is very vulnerable to disturbances in the international economy.”

New jobs can only come through the export industry. In the domestic market small pay rises may even have the opposite effect as purchasing power is not growing. Public services are labour intensive and very moderate pay rises will help the municipal economy, Ilmakunnas says.

Read also:

A hectic week of collective bargaining ahead (20.10.2013)

A comprehensive national wage agreement brings very modest rises (01.09.2013)