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Salaries of Tehy members will rise by 22 to 28% during the agreement period.
After long discussions and group meetings the General Executive Council of Tehy – The Union of Health and Social Care Professionals today approved a mediated deal for Tehy members for the four-year period, 19.11.2007- 31.10.2011. The settlement means that Tehy members will receive a total amount of between 22 and 28 percent in incremental pay rises by the end of the four-year period. Work related salaries will rise by between 350 and 650 euros during the whole agreement period. The final settlement is frontloaded in the sense that most of the increase is to be paid in the first year of the agreement period in three separate increments of around 10 percent altogether, but 4 percent is in the form of a special sectoral allowance as well a rise in the so-called lower pay limits of the work undertaken by Tehy’s members, a rise that will have a significant impact on overall costs. The agreement also includes a lump sum payment of 270 euros, a so-called Christmas bonus which will be paid on the 1.12.2007. The agreement and its contents apply only to Tehy members and is not part of the collective agreement for local authority employees, but is part of a separate agreement that was concluded between Tehy and the Commision for Local Authority Employers.The agreement also means that Tehy will have its own union representives at shop floor or local level as well as its own salaries and its own negotiation practices. Tehy’s president, Jaana Laitinen Pesola, stated at the General Council meeting that the separate agreement for members of Tehy, the overall shape of the settlement, and the fact that most of increases fall at the beginning of the agreement period, as well as the Christmas bonus gained in the negotiations at the last moment, all added support to the position of the Executive Board’s in approving the proposal. She added that the scale of the commitment by the membership in support of negotiating stance of the union was unprecedented, and it was only through the support offered by this unprecedented demonstration of unity and firmness that the negotiators were able to reach such a satisfactory conclusion to the negotiations in spite of what was a very difficult negotiating position. In her speech, Jaana Laitinen Pesola, went on to thank in the warmest terms the Tehy members and all of the people working activly in support of the strike who had been subject to enormous stress and strain during the last few weeks. The acceptance of the offer means that the action which was due to start on the 9.11.2007 has been averted. As a result the nationwide mass resignation of Tehy members, a ban on overtime, a refusal to change shift schedules, a ban on applying for newly declared vacancies, as well as a work-to-rule have all been called off. A supplementary protocol with the Employers was drawn up after the cancellation of industrial action. This states that the Commission for Local Authorities, the negotiating body for local authorities and joint municipal authorities in Finland, declares the nationwide mass resignations as cancelled without any need for separate measures. In the same protocol employees are required to inform their employers personally without delay and by Wednesday 21.11.2007 at the latest.
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