Traditionally, the model for negotiations in Finland has been heavily centralised. Trade unions, employers and the government would negotiate a tri-partite central deal to establish minimum wage raises and cover other areas such as leave, working hours and gender equality. With the backing of the country’s government, which would like to make negotiations more flexible to promote job creation, employers have decided that salary negotiations will not be conducted centrally.
A pact promoted by the Finnish government, which was geared towards lowering the cost of labour (see article n°9709), was indicative of the authorities’ desire to foster more decentralised negotiations. Recent branch-level talks, regarding the implementation of the government’s competitiveness pact and a 24-hour increase in annual working time, demonstrated this flexibility, with varying results produced in different branches.
In March 2016, the government requested social partners to negotiate
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