White collar union leader wants more flexibility in municipal pay levels
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Mikko Mäenpää, chairman of the Finnish Confederation of Salaried Employees (STTK), says that the latest labour contract for the municipal sector is surprising, as well as both positive, and negative.
The surprising part was that the municipal sector was granted pay hikes that were higher even than in export industries.
Mäenpää welcomes the fact that competitiveness of the municipal sector in the race for skilled labour did not deteriorate. At the same time, the contract slightly advanced the equal pay programme of the government and labour market organisations.
"In the current labour situation we clearly have pressure for decent pay even in the public sector. The level that was reached means that wage competitiveness in the municipal sector will not decline", Mäenpää says in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat.
The two nurses' unions affiliated with STTK, Tehy and Super, have so far opted out of the contract. Mäenpää does not wish to take a stand on their demands.
Mäenpää says that he hopes that all STTK-affiliated unions will get satisfactory contracts. However, he adds that pay levels of well-trained personnel lag behind those that prevail in other Nordic Countries.
on the negative side, Mäenpää says that a lack of flexibility still prevails in pay structures. He notes that the whole municipal sector faces an upheaval that has never been seen before, and a rearrangement of work.
"The wage contract on the municipal side should better taken into consideration the upcoming structural change, and the competition for good labour. Pay decisions should be linked with these structural changes, which seek better functionality, results, and higher quality", he says.
"Now a sustainable pay deal has been reached. This should also have been a development programme of pay systems and organisations."
Mäenpää feels that some of the money would have been better spent on improving working communities and achieving better results. "I think that it is a great problem that pay systems in municipalities do not allow for sufficient differences in personal pay. If stability is maintained by force, it will not bring progress, or improve productivity."
Mäenpää takes a cue from information technology, where new professions are emerging all the time through new training, and where pay reacts more readily to changes in working life.
"A structural change is going on at public sector work places as well. Professions change. If our negotiation system does not recognise or permit changes in appreciation for different professions, that is, proportional changes in pay for different professions, then the situation is certainly ridiculous."
As if by coincidence, Mäenpää takes an example from the Confederation of Unions for Academic Professionals (AKAVA).
"If there is a perceived need in society to pay kindergarten teachers more, then our negotiation system and pay system should make it possible."
Kindergarten teachers wanted to turn down the municipal pay contract, but they buckled under to the will of their umbrella organisation, the Trade Union of Education in Finland (OAJ).
"This is quite a challenge: how to make it possible, in broad-based incomes agreements, that pay for different groups could be treated in different ways. But this challenge could prove too challenging", Mäenpää ponders.
He rejects claims that politicians have excessively interfered with labour market affairs in the current round of negotiations. In his view, politicians cannot avoid their responsibility.
"The public sector is nevertheless in the hands of the politicians. The politicians are responsible for seeing to it that the pay is so high that good quality labour becomes available."
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 24.9.2007 - TODAY |
 White collar union leader wants more flexibility in municipal pay levels |
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