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TU threatens strike action at TeliaSonera and Elisa - Collective bargaining in the ICT industry in deadlock



The Union of Salaried Employees TU is set to organize a two-week strike at the teleoperators TeliaSonera and Elisa if collective bargaining does not lead to a new collective agreement. Should that be the case then the strike will begin at six a.m. on October 7.



Some 6,000 salaried employees will participate in the strike, which would, for the large part, affect the services of the two companies. Emergency work will not be affected, TU stresses.



Negotiations ended on Sunday evening with the parties still in serious disagreement over salary increases and qualitative regulations, says Anssi Vuorio, who leads the ICT and communication sector within the TU.



- We, for example, have disagreed on the regulation on minimum working hours. TU's goal is to improve the working conditions of agency labour.



TU and the employer association Tikli had already begun negotiations prior to the annual leave period (summer holidays). Bargaining was held over till autumn because of the slow progress in the work of various task forces. As a result of tight negotiations in August and September some progress was made last week.



The old collective agreement expired on June 30. Since then its regulations have been part of each salaried employee's personnel employment agreement, explains Arto Heikkilä who is responsible for the ICT industry within the union. The agreement covers the working conditions of about 15,000 salaried employees.