Tehy’s opinion asserts that the pay gap between the public and private sectors is an undeniable structural problem that has arisen in the last 60 years as a result of many private sector employers granting more pay raises in the form of wage drifts than public sector employers, which have to adhere to strict budgets and thus only grant agreement-based raises.
– The Government’s legislative proposal would remove the ability of public sector employees to occasionally catch up to the private sector, resulting in an eternal pay gap, says Tehy President Millariikka Rytkönen.
If the proposed act enters into force, it will eliminate the possibility of wage solutions like the one that Tehy secured in 2022, which narrowed the public-private sector pay gap with historically high raises (bulletin in Finnish).
– Sometimes it is necessary to take corrective measures to increase wages in low-paying sectors dominated by women. Recently, these measures have been few and far between, however, with the most recent one before 2022 taking place in 2007. In future, these kinds of corrective measures will no longer be possible, Rytkönen points out.
The pay gap act would tie the National Conciliator’s hands by stipulating that pay raises in other sectors cannot exceed the pay raises granted in the industrial exports sector. However, the National Conciliator does not have access to information on the actual cost level of the industrial exports sector’s wage agreement, which is typically negotiated first during rounds of collective bargaining.
– This is an impossible task for the National Conciliator and will result in permanent structural wage discrimination in our society, which we will not be able to remedy by any means. The proposed act is discriminatory and violates EU law. It should not be enacted.
According to Rytkönen, the proposed act makes the Government's talks of tackling the nursing shortage seem absurd and empty.
The public debate on the subject in Finland has been characterised by political decision-makers referring to ‘the Swedish model’ without actually understanding what it is like. They are of the opinion that nurses’ wages can be increased through local collective bargaining.
– Could you please stop making these kinds of unfounded insinuations and promises? Is it not obvious that the wellbeing services counties are in the middle of a major financial crisis and simply cannot afford local pay raises, Rytkönen snaps.
In Tehy's opinion, there are serious legal problems with the pay gap act.
– The proposal is substandard in terms of EU law and assessments of pay equality, says Tehy specialist, lawyer Jarkko Pehkonen.
Enquiries:
Tehy Lawyer Jarkko Pehkonen, tel. +358 40 531 5464, [email protected]