Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2003, published 92nd ILC session (2004)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Finland (Ratification: 1951)

The Committee takes note of the Government’s report including the information provided in response to comments made by the Confederation of Unions for Academic Professionals in Finland (AKAVA).

The Committee notes of the comments made by the Confederation of Unions for Academic Professionals in Finland (AKAVA), according to which, employers do not accept collective agreements for senior salaried and professional personnel in most industrial sectors and do not recognise the status of shop steward for anyone representing this category. The Committee notes moreover that according to AKAVA, in the services sector in particular, employers do not recognise this personnel category and do not accept its participation in for example, joint management-worker negotiations on termination of employment.

The Committee takes note of the information provided in the Government’s report according to which the relationship between the Confederation of Finnish Industry and Employers (TT) and the Delegation of Professional and Managerial Employees (YTN) which represents senior salaried and professional employees, is governed by two agreements covering most of the sectors of TT’s member federations, namely, the basic TT-YTN agreement, which is by nature a recommendation, and the TT-YTN cooperation agreement, which is a collective agreement. The Committee also notes that according to the Government some of the TT member sectors have sectoral collective agreements concerning senior salaried and professional employees. Furthermore, the Committee notes from the Government’s report that the two above-mentioned basic agreements specify the position and functions of liaison officers who serve as representatives of senior salaried and professional employees and that the latter are entitled to elect a shop steward, if they are bound by the collective agreement, as well as a representative from among themselves under the Employment Contracts Act. Finally, the Committee notes that according to the Government, the joint instructions in the general agreement between the Employers’ Confederations of Service Industries in Finland and YTN stress that senior salaried employees exempt from the collective agreements comprise a personnel group of their own, which is entitled to elect a shop steward or representative as referred to in the Act on Cooperation within Undertakings.

The Committee takes note of this information. With regard to the services sector, the Committee requests the Government to give examples of collective agreements in force in this sector.