The head of Finland’s largest pro-business pressure group has called on employers to freeze workers’ pay for a year, in order to boost the country’s competitiveness.
Speaking to the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on Saturday, Jyri Häkämies of the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) criticised the practice of awarding payrises during a recession, and called for wage increases to be kept to a minimum for at least the next five years.
Häkämies also repeated calls for tax cuts for businesses, which is one of the organisation’s primary lobbying goals.
Pay bonanza
Häkämies’ comments are likely to provoke anger from employees and trades unions, who accuse the EK of failing to respond to calls to criminalise the underpayment of workers.
In June this year an investigation by Helsingin Sanomat uncovered a "pay bonanza" among Finland's top bosses, revealing that while the country was mired in recession, last year's pay packets for senior executives in Finland’s 43 largest listed companies reached their highest in eight years.
The paper found that the CEOs earned on average 951,000 euros basic salary and bonuses in 2013, an increase of 63,000 on than the previous year.
Strike clampdown
The EK also wants an end to national wage agreements, calling for pay levels to be set through local collective bargaining arrangements instead. The group also lobbies for a clampdown on wildcat industrial action.
On Monday last week the EK announced that it had nominated Finland’s biggest wage-earner, former Kone CEO Matti Alahuhta,to be the new chair of the board. Tax figures published on Monday showed Alahuhta earned 4.8 million euros in 2013.