No agreement on salary increases or teaching hour caps. The collective agreement negotiations for universities have been ongoing for over three months.
Under the leadership of the National Conciliator, the labour dispute has been conciliated intensively, but no settlement proposal has been reached yet.
The main contentious issues in the negotiations are salary increases and the teaching hour cap, which is intended to protect those engaged in teaching and research from excessive workloads.
Finland’s thirteen universities and their teaching, research, and supporting administration form the cultural foundation of society.
– Finland’s future is built on expertise, and it is the employees of the universities who make this possible. Therefore, fair, general salary increases and working conditions that support well-being are not a matter of negotiation but a necessity, emphasize the organisations representing university employees.
There are thirteen universities in Finland, employing a total of 35,000 people.
The labour dispute in a nutshell
- JUKO aims for salary increases that improve purchasing power and solutions to the increased workload of staff in the university collective agreement negotiations.
- University staff have not been offered salary increases in line with the general level.
- The Finnish Education Employers, representing university employers, is pushing for the removal of teaching hour caps.
- Teaching hour caps are an essential and important protective mechanism written into the collective agreement, which protects teaching and research staff from being overburdened at work. Teaching hour caps are important to all university sector unions representing JUKO’s teaching and research staff and their members.
- Negotiations have been ongoing intensively since early February, and the contract period ended at the end of March. Despite active negotiation efforts, no solutions were found at the negotiating table. In mid-April, the labour dispute was referred to the national conciliator.
- As a solution, JUKO has proposed, for example, local agreements and working group work based on research and expertise to explore how working time regulations could be developed from a university perspective.
Up-to-date information on the conciliation can also be found on JUKO’s Facebook (in Finnish).
University facts 2025
- Collective agreements | Universities’ general collective agreement and the provisions on teacher training schools
- Agreement period | 1st April, 2023 – 31st March, 2025
- Main contractual parties | JUKO, Trade Union Pro, Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL, and Finnish Education Employers
- JUKO’s 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, OAJ), Negotiations Manager Petri Toiviainen (Social Science Professionals), and Negotiations Manager Reetta Kuosmanen (The Union of Research Professionals)
What is JUKO?
- JUKO, the Negotiation Organization for Public Sector Professionals, negotiates collective agreements on behalf of, and thus represents, 200,000 members of 35 Akava member unions.
- JUKO bargains 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 Yritysjaosto, the National Gallery and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.
- At the workplaces, 3,500 JUKO shop stewards negotiate locally and represent members of all JUKO unions.
- Public sector professionals, supervisors or managerial positions: find your union www.jaseneksi.fi/en
- www.juko.fi
