In a bid to improve growth and battle unemployment, Finland’s social partners have agreed (02.29) a certain number of measures impacting workers conditions. The government still has to accept the details of the social contract being put forward, although it has welcomed it with a certain degree of satisfaction.
Union bodies finally accepted measures for employees, which are particularly stringent. The agreement, now named the “social contract’, or, “the competitiveness pact” is the result of difficult and interrupted negotiations that were launched in 2015 following an announcement by the then new Prime Minister, Juha Sipilä that he intended to implement legislation on drastic measures such as reducing leave times and lowering salaries as well as raising social contributions charges.
The resulting agreement has satisfied employers as it aims to boost the competiveness of the country’s businesses by requiring that current collective agreements be maintained as well as salaries frozen until 2017.
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