Finland - Postal workers agree on two-day work stoppage

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The Finnish Post and Logistics Union (PAU) will stage a two-day work stoppage on 19–20 November in an attempt to add a sense of urgency to the ongoing negotiations over the terms and conditions of employment.

The work stoppage will, for example, disrupt mail deliveries in Helsinki and early-morning newspaper deliveries in Greater Helsinki and Uusimaa as well as disrupt the operations of the postal centre in Helsinki and the logistics centres in Lieto and Vantaa.

More than 4,000 employees will participate in the industrial action, according to PAU.

PAU is also prepared to organise additional work stoppages after 20 November but has yet to shed light on their details.

Heidi Nieminen, the chairperson at PAU, revealed on Thursday that the negotiations over the terms and conditions of employment in the postal sector will continue at 3.30pm on Friday. The Union Council, she added, discussed the proposal of the executive board for industrial action on Thursday.

“Our council and members are naturally outright puzzled by the actions of Posti. The personnel policy of Posti and PALTA [Service Sector Employers] has stirred up an emotional response,” she said.

One of the main bones of contention in the negotiations has reportedly been the decision of Posti to increase the use of temporary agency workers.

Nieminen, however, stressed that the use of temporary agency workers is not the biggest issue creating tension in the negotiations. “The biggest issue is that we're in a state of non-agreement. That is because the employer is seeking to weaken people's monthly earnings and terms of employment quite considerably.”

Posti and PALTA reminded in a joint statement released on Thursday that the use of temporary agency workers is perfectly legal.

PAU, Nieminen replied, has not claimed that the use of temporary agency workers is illegal. “It's simply outright immoral under the current circumstances. Posti's own, temporary employees have been left without work and part-time employees haven't been offered additional work in accordance with the Employment Contracts Act. These people are suffering at this very moment.”

Nieminen revealed that the main objective of PAU in the ongoing negotiations is to hammer out a reasonable collective agreement that does not include the proposed cuts and changes to the terms of employment.

PAU, she affirmed, is disinclined to slash the already-low wages of its members further.

Tuomas Aarto, the deputy director general at PALTA, said the strike warning came at an unexpected time.

“We've had positive talks in recent days and signs of us being able to untie some of the knots were beginning to arise. That's why the strike warning came as a surprise. It's difficult to estimate how it'll affect our negotiations tomorrow,” he said.

PALTA is according to Aarto hopeful that the employees appreciate the necessity of change. He believes the debate has revolved excessively around the changes to the terms of employment PAU has called attention to in public.

“It's premature to be horrified by the proposals because we haven't really been able to discuss the measures. There are several ways to realise the desired changes. That's why we should weigh up the different options and then hammer out measures that both parties find agreeable,” Aarto stated.

PALTA has according to him identified four key areas where changes are necessary: the system of remuneration, working hours, the use of external workforce and the much-discussed protection in the event of re-structuring.

“The current system is too expensive and passive and doesn't encourage finding a new job. Posti's result from the previous quarter, in turn, indicates that the adjustment measures already introduced haven't been enough to compensate for the disappearance of basic postal services. The operations aren't profitable as they are,” Aarto summarised.

PAU and PALTA are in talks over a new collective agreement following the expiry of the previous agreement. The employees of Posti have refused to train temporary agency workers, and PAU has instituted a training, orientation and overtime ban at its workplaces.

Posti is according to PAU seeking to slash the monthly wages of its employees by hundreds of euros, to introduce inhumane work shifts and to remove the protection in the event of re-structuring.