In a speech at a union event in Savonlinna this summer, AKT Transport Union chair Marko Piirainen commented that the objectives of the employers and labour are like night and day.
Piirainen is a member of the labour market organisation working group charged with reforming the Pact for Employment and Growth, a pact between labour and employer confederations on collective bargaining. The assessment should consider issues like improving the conciliation system and dispute resolution procedure, and implementing wage increases in industries not covered by agreements.
Markus Äimälä, working group chair and managing director of EK’s labour law and industrial relations unit, is of a different opinion on the reform’s progress.
“The objectives may seem relatively remote from each other right now, but this is hardly new in labour negotiations,” Äimälä told Yle.
“At least on the employer side, we are sincere in our efforts to make it a reality, and I have understood that the same is true for labour. As for myself, I am determined to find a solution,” he says.
Worker demands not recognized
AKT’s Piirainen says worker demands like the criminalisation of underpayment and the prohibition of shopping around for labour agreements have not been afforded any kind of response from the employer confederation.
EK’s Äimälä, for his part, refuses to reveal any details about the current situation in the working group, as its members have agreed not to discuss the negotiations in public.
“Make no mistake: the negotiations are difficult and they will continue to be so. But no one is throwing in the towel just yet, on either side. Of course it is slightly aggravating that Piirainen’s analysis of the likelihood of finding a solution is so pessimistic,” he says.