Finland’s Local Employers Authority has approved a proposal to solve a pay dispute with health professionals union Tehy and avert the mass resignation of up to 16,000 nurses.
An announcement on its website states: “The Local Authority Employers and Tehy have both accepted the agreement proposal to end the dispute. At the same time, the mass resignations will be cancelled.”
The nurses had said they would resign if their demands for higher wages were not met, a move that would have paralysed healthcare across the country.
The 124,000-member trade union had wanted a 24% pay rise over 28 months, about 15 percentage points above average wage growth.
Currently, a nurse’s starting salary in the public sector is 1,750 euros a month.
Last year Tehy members’ average pay was 2,386 euros a month, compared with the Finnish average wage in 2005 of 2,555 euros.
