The Finnish Ship's Officers Union stays outside the incomes policy agreement

Download article in original language : FI9801147NFI.DOC

The Finnish Ship's Officers Union has not approved the country's new central incomes policy agreement, which was signed on 12 December 1997 by STTK, the confederation to which it belongs. According to the union, the reason for its refusal is an imbalance in pay between crew and officers, which need to be adjusted.

One of the few trade unions which has not signed the new national incomes policy agreement, concluded on 12 December 1997 (FI9801145F) is the Finnish Ship's Officers' Union (Suomen Laivanpäällystöliitto, SLPL), SLPL is a member union of the Finnish Confederation of Salaried Employees (Toimihenkilökeskusjärjestö, STTK), which has signed. After this refusal, the union is now negotiating directly with its employers' counterpart, the Shipowners' Association, (Suomen Varustamoyhdistys, SVY).

The SLPL sees the pay relationship between ships' crews and officers as being distorted. It is worried about the Act on the Register of Cargo Ships in Foreign Transport, which, while preventing jobs from being lost, has led to pay cuts of 10%. The union also considers that it has lost out in so-called "rationalisation contracts", which resulted in better pay for the crew rather than officers. In connection with this Act, the number of crew members was reduced and at the same time their field of work was widened in order to manage with a smaller crew. As a consequence, the crew received an increase of 10% in their salaries, to compensate for the increased work and requirements. The chair of SVY, Per Forskåhl, stats that the officers had the same opportunity to obtain a similar agreement, but this was rejected by the employees. The ship's officers earn between FIM 17,000 and FIM 18,000 a month (cited in the Demari newspaper, 20 January 1998).

According to the executive manager of the SLPL, Markus Sinisalo, shipping employers apply too many fixed-term contracts, and this should be reformed. The Finnish Merchant Shipping Act states that employment contracts can be fixed term or permanent, and no justification of any kind is needed for the contract type.

According to Mr Sinisalo, the ongoing negotiations will most likely result in an agreement. However, the possibility of a strike is not entirely excluded. In that eventuality, 2,700 SLPL members would start strike action by paralysing Finnish marine traffic in both personnel and goods. Merely giving a strike warning would have the effect of diminishing the number of travellers. The officers have a valid collective agreement until the end of January 1998.