University collective agreement negotiations hit a wall with teaching hour caps

No agreement has been reached on the collective agreement for some 35,000 employees of universities. The negotiating parties last met on Monday, April 14th.

Negotiations have been ongoing intensively since early February, and the contract period ended at the end of March.

JUKO’s negotiators state that despite the intensive negotiations, no solutions have been found at the negotiating table to address the increased workload of the university staff. Instead, Finnish Education Employers, representing university employers, is pushing for the removal of teaching hour caps.

Teaching hour caps are an essential and important protective mechanism written into the collective agreement, which protects teaching and research staff from being overburdened at work. They are important to all university sector unions’ teaching and research staff that JUKO represents in these negotiations.

Salary increases still unresolved

Negotiations have now literally hit and stalled on the teaching hour cap, and no new negotiation times have been agreed upon. Other issues, including salary increases, are also unresolved.

JUKO’s negotiators emphasise that JUKO still has the will to resolve the issue through negotiations.

However, the additional time has not produced the desired result for the employees, and therefore the negotiating employee organisations must also be prepared for other means to reach an agreement.

Despite the end of the contract period, Finland’s thirteen universities and their staff will continue to follow the provisions of the previous collective agreement as usual until the old university collective agreement is terminated or a new agreement, accepted by all negotiating parties, is reached.

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