Doctors' strike ends

On 17 August 2001, the Finnish Medical Association and the Commission for Local Authority Employers signed a new collective agreement, which brought to an end after 20 weeks a strike by doctors. The strike had been Finland's longest. The two-year deal will increase labour costs by 10.5%, which the employers consider expensive. The doctors believe that the way has now been opened for a total reform of Finnish healthcare.

On 17 August 2001, the Finnish Medical Association (Suomen Lääkäriliitto, SLL) and the Commission for Local Authority Employers (Kunnallinen Työmarkkinalaitos, KT) concluded a new collective agreement, thus ending a 20-week strike by doctors working for local authorities - Finland's longest-ever strike. Both SLL and KT decided to approve a unanimous proposal made by a special conciliation board which had been set up to broker a deal (FI0108195N). The conclusion of the accord was speeded up by a deadline set by the government, and the final negotiations were conducted intensively with sessions continuing far into the night.

The cost effect of the two-year deal is about 10.5%. SLL also obtained some "qualitative" improvements in working conditions. The agreement will expire at the same time as Finland's other collective agreements in January 2003.

SLL had decided not to sign up to the two-year centralised national incomes policy agreement concluded in December 2000 (FI0012170F). The main reasons stated for the decision were the wage increase - the incomes policy agreement would have offered increases of just over 5%, while the doctors sought over 20% - along with serious qualitative working conditions problems in the healthcare sector. Instead, SLL started negotiations with KT over a separate collective agreement (FI0102176N). The talks failed and the doctors started strike action in March 2001 (FI0103182F).

The national conciliator, Juhani Salonius, made a mediation proposal in May, which would have provided a pay increase slightly exceeding that in the incomes policy agreement. However, the doctors persisted with their earlier demands and the proposal failed. As the strike became prolonged, it was decided to establish a separate conciliation board, which also failed initially to reach a settlement. However, the conciliation board continued negotiations with the support of the central-level social partner organisations and political decision-makers, and this crucially influenced the birth of the deal finally reached in August.

The doctors' strike was conducted in such a way that there was an effort to treat only emergency patients, in the manner required by the law. The strike alternated between doctors in hospitals in different municipalities and in different specialist fields. At the same time, the doctors were able to work in the private sector, which is partly subsidised. Due to such private practice and to high strike pay from their wealthy union, the doctors did not face any severe economic hardship during the strike, and the pressure on the employers could be continued to the last.

Because of the strike, the employers lost patient fees amounting to over FIM 500 million. The waiting lists that accumulated during the industrial action will also give rise to some extra costs. However, the greatest inconvenience was caused to the patients, who had to postpone their treatments and will now be forced to continue waiting for a long time for the backlog to be cleared.

KT considered the deal reached to be very expensive due to the increased labour costs involved as well as the costs caused by clearing the waiting-list backlog and normalising services. According to SLL, the way has been opened for a total reform of Finnish healthcare. The union is hoping that it will be possible to examine seriously and in-depth the problems of public sector healthcare and the possible solutions.