Ministry of Labour ready to accept validity of mass resignation of Tehy nurses

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Minister of Labour Tarja Cronberg (Green) feels that the lists of signatures of nurses collected by the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (Tehy) qualify as valid notice of resignation.
      Tehy announced on Monday that nearly 13,000 of its members had volunteered to join a mass resignation campaign to press the union's pay demands, aimed at rectifying what has been perceived as an unfairly low pay level.
      By submitting resignations, the nurses are averting the requirement to maintain a minimum level of staffing at hospitals which it would be required to do under a regular strike. However, by resigning rather than striking, the nurses run the theoretical risk of not being rehired.
     
Questions were raised on Monday as to whether or the lists collected by Tehy would qualify as official letters of resignation. Cronberg told Helsingin Sanomat on Tuesday evening that she feels that the resignations are valid.
      The Commission for Local Authority Employers has said that each resignation must be personal.
     
The Ministry of Labour is still examining whether or not the lists can be considered valid notices of resignation.
      "This is a resignation situation and not a work stoppage", Cronberg noted. "The Minister of Labour cannot postpone a strike, or do anything similar.
      The Ministry of Labour is also ascertaining what consequences the action might have on labour contracts in a situation in which those who have resigned were to seek their old jobs back.
     
The validity of the lists collected by Tehy is an extremely sensitive subject between Tehy and the municipal employer. Both refused yesterday to even show the original resignation lists to the media.
      A list seen by Helsingin Sanomat, applying to the City of Helsinki, included the signatures of the individuals in question, clarifications of signature, the unit in which the person was working, and the individual's date of birth.
      Each paper has ten names, below a text that reads: "We the undersigned announce that our positions with the City of Helsinki shall be terminated as of November 19th, 2007."


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Nearly 13,000 nurses ready for mass resignation (15.10.2007)
  Feminist Association Unioni urges all Finnish women to go on sympathy strike next Monday (12.10.2007)
  Hospitals fear impact of nurses´ threatened industrial action (11.10.2007)
  Legal expert says Tehy lists of nurses´ names not legally valid notice of resignation (16.10.2007)
  Health care workers threaten mass resignation in labour dispute (10.10.2007)
  Tehy rejects contract offer approved by other nurses union (1.10.2007)

Helsingin Sanomat