Unions ask for 10%

In an unusual move, SAK, Finland’s main union confederation, has announced that it is calling for 10% pay increases over the next two years — 6% In the first year and 4% in the second.

It also wants minimum increases in both years of ¤150 (around £125) a month in year one, and ¤100 (£83) in year two.

These increases are well above inflation which was 1.1% in October. Employers have called the claim “unrealistic”.

However, SAK has explicitly linked it to the legal changes which were introduced against strong union opposition earlier in the year (see Labour Research, October 2024, page 8).

As Kimmo Palonen, head of the construction union, pointed out, the government’s measures “increase the risk for wage earners, and to compensate for that, wages must rise”.