Negotiations on pay rises this year for 34,000 university staff continued on Friday

Me olemme yliopisto.

In the negotiations, JUKO, the Negotiation Organization for Public Sector Professionals, aims for pay rises that boost purchasing power. The parties next meet on Monday 30 January.

The negotiations for pay rises this year for university employees continued on Friday 27 January. In the negotiations, JUKO aims for pay rises that boost purchasing power.

The chairperson of the university advisory committee, Tarja Niemelä (Finnish Union of University Professors) emphasizes the significantly higher than usual inflation this year.

“At present, we’re focusing on negotiating this year’s pay rises.”

JUKO has repeatedly stressed its view that Finland’s future is based on knowledge, in which universities’ teaching and research are a key factor.

If negotiations do not achieve a result concerning salaries in January or February, the two-year collective agreement reached in spring 2022 may be terminated to expire at the end of March. In that case, all the universities’ staff would be without a collective agreement as of 1 April.

“Without a valid collective agreement, the provisions of the old collective agreement are observed, but industrial action is also possible,” Katja Aho, Head of Collective Bargaining at JUKO, says.

The members of Akava trade unions on behalf of whom JUKO negotiates work in roles such as research, teaching, administration and management.

The parties negotiating for a general collective agreement for universities and teacher training schools are: JUKO, the Negotiation Organization for Public Sector Professionals; the Pro Trade Union; JHL, the Trade Union for Public and Welfare Sectors, and Finnish Education Employers.

The parties next meet on Monday 30 January.

The negotiations are part of the two-year collective agreement signed in April 2022. In that agreement, the parties agreed that the pay rises for 2023 would be negotiated by the end of January.

University facts

Main contractual parties | JUKO; Pro Trade Union; JHL, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors; and Finnish Education Employers
Collective agreements | Universities’ general collective agreement and the teacher training school collective agreement
Negotiators | Head of Collective Bargaining Katja Aho (JUKO), University Advisory Board Chair and Executive Director Tarja Niemelä (Finnish Union of University Professors), Special Adviser Hanna Tanskanen (Trade Union of Education in Finland, OAJ), Negotiations Manager Petri Toiviainen (Social Science Professionals)
The universities’ general collective agreement covers an approximate 34,000 employees. The members of Akava unions represented by JUKO work at universities in such areas as research, teaching, administration and management.

We will provide weekly information about the negotiations in our Negotiations News email and on our website at www.juko.fi. Follow us and the conversation on Facebook and Twitter: @JUKOry. Our hashtags are #MeOlemmeYliopisto and #neuvotellen2023.

It’s also worth visiting the Yliopistotes.fi website regularly. This online information bank from JUKO and its member unions has all the essential information about the universities’ collective agreement.

Further information

Katja Aho | head of collective bargaining | university sector | +358 50 592 1646 |katja.aho@juko.fi | Twitter @aho_katja @JUKOry

JUKO, the Negotiation Organization for Public Sector Professionals, negotiates collective agreements on behalf of, and thus represents, 200,000 members of Akava member unions. We bargain collectively on behalf of employees and officials of the municipalities, well-being services counties, the state, universities and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, as well as in Avainta sectors*, the National Gallery and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. (*Private companies and foundations operating under the aegis of municipalities, as well as private service providers for the municipalities.)

We are an association of associations: JUKO consists of 11 member associations, which have 35 member unions.