Finland: Biggest collective agreement achieved for the press
The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) welcomes the adoption of the biggest collective agreement in Finland with Finnmedia, the body that represents the media industry in Finland, negotiated by the Union of Journalists in Finland (UJF). It will cover print newspapers, magazines, all web services and news agencies. The agreement is valid until 31 May 2022.
The biggest achievement of the agreement is a pay rise, especially on the lower wages, along with the removal of the extra hours and the restoration of the Christmas holiday break. In addition, the extra hours will be compensated with paid training, a point that Finnish journalists were strongly demanding.
“The collective agreement guarantees same moderate pay rises for every journalist working in press media. Our members value especially their right to maximum 7 weeks of paid vacation per year, which we succeeded to keep. By this agreement we also decreased the amount of working hours (- 24 hours per year). This was the custom in Finland this year in most agreements. We appreciate the culture of collective negotiations in labour market, and we want to continue this policy in the future”, said Hanne Aho, President, and Juha Rekola, international affairs, of UJF
The agreement includes, among other measures:
- Holiday entitlements remain unchanged
- The extra hours of the Competitiveness Pact will be eliminated, and the Christmas holiday break will be restored
- From 1 June 2020 increases in individual pay, pay scale salary increases, and shift allowances by 1.3%
- From 1 May 2021 increases in individual pay by 1.4%, local instalment is 0,6%. If there is disagreement over the distribution of the local instalment, 0.3% shall be disbursed in the form of a general increase and the employer shall decide on the allocation of 0.3%. Pay scale salaries and shift allowances will increase by 2%
- The employer is entitled to arrange 7.5 hours of paid training per year on top of current working hours
