Trade unions interrupt strikes, to prepare law with govt

Several trade unions on Friday announced that they interrupt their current political strike actions following a conditional acceptance by central labor organizations of a compromise plan from Prime Minister Juha Sipilä.

The three central organisations underlined that Sipilä had promised that a new bill on job security would be prepared jointly with the labor organizations.

The unions said they would continue with the strikes and other measures if the joint preparation hits a snag. Central organizations as such could not decide whether to end the strikes which were called by their member unions.

Within hours, Sipilä accepted the demand by the central unions that besides the law text also the crucially important preamble of the bill would be processed jointly in the traditional tripartite round table meetings between the unions, the government and the employer organizations.

In the Finnish legal practice, the preambles of law bills are important as they are being used in the courts as a proof of what the "real intention" of the legislation has been.

After several weeks of political labor action, the government on Thursday offered to take away from the job security bill the clause that dismissals would be easier in companies with less than ten employees. Instead, there would be a general principle that the size and "the overall situation of a company" would be taken into account in the court cases about dismissals.

Teemu Luukka, a political analyst of a Finnish language newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, said on Friday that the possibility exists that the unions "in their empowered state of mind now" would insist on such wordings in the preamble that would actually make dismissals more difficult.

That would not be acceptable to the government and the crisis would start again. In fact, Helsingin Sanomat quoted Sipilä as using the word "armistice" about the situation now between the government and the unions.

Jarkko Eloranta, chairman of the blue collar central organisation, said Friday that joint work is important as the labor side does not have yet "the full picture of the planned legislation".

Local commentators have noted that as a side product of the deal the traditional Finnish tripartite decision making got a new recognition, even a rehabilitation.

Ari Hakahuhta, a political analyst of the national broadcaster Yle, said that disagreements between the unions and the government may re-emerge later as the government now could not reach its objectives.