Nurses: contract accepted, resignations cancelled, disagreement on implementation

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It appears that Monday's settlement between the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (Tehy) and the Commission for Local Authority Employers (KT) did not end all disagreements between the two organisations.
      The contract averts a threatened mass resignation campaign by Tehy, in which 12,000 nurses had threatened to walk off their jobs to back their pay demands. However, differences emerged immediately between Tehy and KT on the percentages that had actually been agreed on.
      At a press conference held yesterday at the office of National Conciliator Juhani Salonius, Tehy chairwoman Jaana Laitinen-Pesola and KT's labour market director Markku Jalonen clashed on their interpretation of the amount of the pay rise that the contract contained.
      Tehy calculates that its members will get pay hikes of 22 to 28 per cent over the coming four years, while KT says that pay costs will rise by 15.7 to 17.7 per cent during the contract period.
     
A large part of the differences in interpretation stem from the fact that Tehy assumes that overall pay hikes of 4-6 per cent will be implemented in the municipal sector in 2010-2011. The municipal employers make no such assumptions for the last two years of the contract period, as the general contract in the municipal sector ends at the end of January 2010.
      The actual size of pay increases at that time will not be known until 2010-2011, but it is expected that Tehy members will see their pay rise by more than 20 per cent in the next four years.
      National Conciliator Juhani Salonius says that the first slightly more than two years of the contract follows the lines of the overall municipal contract. Laitinen-Pesola calculated that even during that time, Tehy members will get between three and seven percentage points more than other organisations in the municipal sector. Tehy calculates that its members will get increases of about ten per cent in the first year of the contract.
     
KT sees the settlement as being quite expensive.
      "Four years of industrial peace, but at a rather high price", says Markku Jalonen.
      The money will come from the same source as before - the taxes of municipal residents", he noted.
      Jalonen calculates that one in four local authorities will have to raise their municipal taxes as a result of the pay increases.
      In addition to the four years of industrial peace, Jalonen saw other positive aspects to the contract: "The contract contains elements which promote agreeing on issues locally, improvements in productivity, and the development of payment systems."
     
National Conciliator Juhani Salonius said that it is unprecedented for a contract in the municipal sector to be partially linked to improvements in productivity.
      In recent years the number of employees in the social and health care branch of the municipal sector has increased by about 1,500 a year. Under the contract, if the number of personnel in 2010 is the same as it was in 2006, nurses will be entitled to pay increases of two per cent. If the number increases by more than 1,300 a year, the increase will not take effect.
      Archiatre Risto Pelkonen, who chaired the mediation board which hammered out the settlement, described the experience as unique: "This is like an adventure play, in which I was not the dramaturge, or the director, but I am involved in the play."
     
The General Council of Tehy approved the board's proposal unanimously.
      "I am moderately satisfied with the situation", Laitinen-Pesola said, in her first comments on the contract.
      "We didn't achieve all of our goals, but it is a good result anyway", she added.
      Rauno Vesivalo, chair of the General Council of Tehy, was not quite as satisfied. "A bit of money was left missing", he said.
     
Activities at many hospitals had been modified somewhat in anticipation of possible industrial action. Hospitals are now working to deal with a backlog of surgeries, saying that it will take a few days before things are back to normal.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Parliament passes text of patient protection bill (13.11.2007)
  Government introduces legislation to limit planned mass resignations of nurses (9.11.2007)
  Nearly 13,000 nurses ready for mass resignation (15.10.2007)
  BREAKING NEWS: TEHY and local authorities accept pay deal to avert mass resignations by nurses (19.11.2007)
  Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District planning patient transfers (15.11.2007)
  Tehy rejects contract offer approved by other nurses´ union (1.10.2007)

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