Posti draws controversy over major salary cut

A plan by the National postal and logistic services operator, Posti, to reduce the salaries of some 700 postal workers by 30 percent has caused a national debate about the moral values of the state as an employer.

It also triggered a three-day strike starting from Monday in parcel processing and network shopping services of Posti.

Filand's Posti has said it will no longer apply the Postal Workers Union's salary norms when they expire in November this year, and will start paying on the basis of a cheaper "distribution service" tariffs agreed with the Industrial Union.

Sirpa Paatero, the Minister for Local Government and Ownership Steering, said "she feels bad about the pay cut", but added that the Posti has to compete against international companies that use cheaper labor in Finland.

Paatero described the competitive edge situation of the Posti as "intolerable", but said the executive bonus systems could be reviewed.

Comparisons of the salaries of postal workers and the CEO had led to a social media outcry. Heikki Malinen, the CEO of Posti, said on Monday to local media that he would himself give up two months salary.

Personal earnings information is public in Finland due to the annual publication of income by the tax authorities. The average salary of a postal worker in Finland is around 2,200 euros, and after the planned reduction it would be around 1600 euros, while CEO Malinen makes 47,000 a month, with bonuses over 80,000.

Professor Henri Melin, a labor relations sociologist at Tampere University, told national broadcaster Yle on Monday he expects the "cheapening of labor contracts" to widen as a phenomenon in Finland. "The case of Posti is a precedent, as it concerns one company and one branch."

The postal workers have won nation-wide support. A solidarity action by railroad employees will affect Finland's largest freight port Kotka, east of Helsinki on Wednesday.