General pay rises will increase salaries by a total of 5.5%. In May, full-time university employees will receive a one-off payment of at least €400.
The main contractual parties on the employee side and Finnish Education Employers have approved the settlement reached last Friday for the universities’ new collective agreement for the period 1 April 2023–31 March 2025.
The collective agreement for the universities’ 34,000 employees was negotiated by JUKO, Pro Trade Union, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL, and Finnish Education Employers.
The general pay rise will raise salaries by a total of 5.5% over two years.
“Both general pay rises are going to occur during the first year of the agreement, which is a good thing for employees,” JUKO Head of Collective Bargaining Katja Aho says.
This year, a general pay rise will lift salaries by 3.5% from 1 September. In May, full-time university employees will be paid a one-off payment of 12.6% of monthly salary, but in any case no less than €400.
To receive the payment, the employee must be a salaried one, and their contract must have begun by 1 February this year and must not expire before the end of April and that the person is salaried also in May.
“A short break between fixed-term contracts, for example, will not stop them from getting the payment,” Aho says.
The one-off payment will also be made to staff on euro-denominated salaries, as well as to academy researchers and academy professors funded by the Academy of Finland.
The compensation paid to shop stewards and occupational safety representatives will increase by 6% from 1 September.
Next year, a general pay rise will increase salaries by 2% from 1 March.
Aho and Tarja Niemelä (Finnish Union of University Professors), chair of the JUKO University Advisory Board, consider it a positive development that as part of the principle of continuous negotiation, the parties have now committed to review the current state of the universities’ remuneration system and opportunities to improve it during the validity of the agreement.
“This is a way in which we try to make the universities more competitive in terms of salary and more attractive employers,” Aho and Niemelä say.
The members of Akava trade unions on behalf of whom JUKO negotiates work in roles such as research, teaching, administration and management.
Negotiation timeline
This year’s negotiations concerning pay rises began on 17 January. They were part of the two-year collective agreement signed in April last year, in which it was agreed that the pay rises for 2023 would be negotiated by the end of January. The employee unions terminated the universities’ collective agreement on 17 February.
More information
The members of Akava trade unions on behalf of whom JUKO negotiates work in roles such 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.
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.
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.
