On 30 October, the Finnish Industrial Union (Teollisuusliitto), formerly the metalworkers’ union, announced that it has negotiated a new collective agreement with the sector’s employer organisation, Technology Industries of Finland (Teknologiateollisuus). The agreement, which applies to large areas of Finnish industry (eg. engineering, shipbuilding, steel industry, electronics, automobiles, telecommunications, IT), is good news for the country, as it decreases fears of a larger dispute, on a national level. However, sector-level quarrels cannot be ruled out.
The agreement that has been negotiated will apply for two years, beginning from 1 November 2017. The deal can be extended by a year, which will be subject to negotiations in spring 2019. The agreement guarantees that the wages of 100,000 people employed in the metal and technology industries will increase by 2% over the next two years, through pay rises of 1.1% in 2018 and 0.9% in 2019.
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