According to information available to Tehy, the employer is planning to dismiss even more people unless certain employee groups accept the new places of work offered to them in other parts of Uusimaa.
The workload of the remaining nurses will also be increased by the fact that HUS is planning to dismiss department secretaries and transfer their work to the care staff. The strangest part of the matter is that even the employer representatives of HUS departments are not aware of these plans, and no preparations have been made for the changes in the departments.
– HUS is incapable of assessing its operations in their entirety. Its different departments are planning these changes half-blind, and no one is taking responsibility for the whole HUS organisation. This will also hit the nurses hard, even though the employer claimed otherwise at first. If HUS implements these changes as planned in the co-operation procedure, this will send an unprecedented shockwave through the field, comments Tehy President Millariikka Rytkönen.
Rytkönen highlights that the staff reductions in HUS will compromise the treatment quality of residents in the whole area, and will also impact the City of Helsinki’s social and healthcare services and the operations of all wellbeing services counties in Uusimaa.
During the co-operation procedure, Tehy member representatives have repeatedly demanded the employer to assume responsibility for its actions and to consider HUS operations in their entirety. These warnings by the personnel have not been taken seriously. HUS has conducted the entire co-operation procedure in an entirely unsatisfactory manner and without any respect for its employees.
Rytkönen says that it also appears that the employer has not acted as required by law in all areas of the co-operation procedure, and Tehy is planning to review the legality of the process.
– In the end, the responsibility for the demanded additional savings, the treatment of personnel and the healthcare of the region’s residents fall onto the political decision-maker, i.e. the Executive of the Joint Authority. Those elected to power are also required to have the ability to understand the consequences of their decisions, Rytkönen says.
– This is what happens when politicians make hasty decisions in a too tight schedule, without realism and proper understanding of the HUS operations.
For several weeks, trade union Tehy’s professional branches and advocacy experts have been working hard to influence the employer in an attempt to persuade it to tone down its plans to dismiss care sector professionals.
Enquiries:
Tehy lawyer Jarkko Pehkonen, tel. +358 (0)40 531 5464, jarkko.pehkonen(at)tehy.fi