Nurses' union accuses municipal employers of illegal industrial action

Cases by both sides of labour dispute submitted to Labour Court

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The Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (Tehy) has filed a complaint with Finland's Labour Court alleging that the Commission for Local Authority Employers (KT) and three local employers have violated the municipal law on collective bargaining contracts for municipal employment.
      Tehy says that the hospital districts of Finland Proper and South Ostrobothnia, and the City of Tampere have declared open the posts from which nursing staff affiliated with Tehy have submitted resignations. Tehy also says that the employers' side has sent letters to those who have resigned to pressure them to change course.
      Tehy feels that the mass resignation campaign was not intended to permanently end the employment of the nurses involved, and that therefore, the employers' side would not have the right to solicit for new employees for the posts that are temporarily being left open.
     
Tehy sees the counterattack by the employers as an illegal industrial action, and that under the law, the only legal industrial action from the employers would be a lockout.
      Tehy is calling for a fine to be imposed on the three employers, as well as KT, which Tehy says has not sufficiently monitored the activities of local employers.
      Speaking for the management side, KT lawyer Henrika Nybondas-Kangas said that opening the jobs for applications "was not industrial action at all".
      She insisted that the action is completely legal.
      Minna Helle of Tehy sharply denounces the employers' decision as short-sighted. "They are signalling to Tehy members: ‘you are not needed'."
     
KT has complained that the mass resignation campaign by municipally employed nurses is an industrial action that violates the law on municipal employment.
      The case was heard in the Labour Court on Tuesday. Tehy disputes KT's claims, saying that the mass resignation is a temporary industrial action comparable with a strike.
      If the two sides do not reach an agreement in the ongoing pay dispute, the mass resignations are to take effect on November 19th.
     
A mediation board headed by Archiatre Risto Pelkonen begins its efforts to reach a settlement on Wednesday. The board hopes to present a settlement proposal next week.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Health care workers threaten mass resignation in labour dispute (10.10.2007)
  Only a couple of hundred nurses withdraw resignations (30.10.2007)
  Labour market experts doubt nurses will get pay hikes they want (22.10.2007)
  Ministry: Nurse resignations could cost lives (25.10.2007)

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