Industrial Union annuls extension to working time under the Competitiveness Pact for five agreement sectors

As of this Friday, the Industrial Union has annulled the extension to working time in the collective bargaining agreements concluded by the Metalworkers’ Union in 2016 as part of the so-called Competitiveness Pact.

The extension to working time was annulled for the technology industry, car sector and engineering, sheet and industrial insulation industry, ore mining industry, and service and maintenance. These industries covered by the Industrial Union employ a total of over 100,000 employees.

In autumn 2016, the Metalworkers’ Union and the Technology Industries of Finland agreed on a 24-hour extension to annual working time for five sectors as part of the Competitiveness Pact. The extension concerned the years 2017, 2018 and 2019.

The extension was agreed in the collective bargaining agreement concluded by the Metalworkers’ Union by supplementary protocol. The supplementary protocol may be annulled to end on 31 December 2019 at the earliest.

The extension could be annulled only for sectors represented by the former Metalworkers’ Union, as in nearly all other sectors, the extension was agreed in the text of the collective agreement, not in a supplementary protocol.

Does not apply to other agreement sectors

This notice of annulment does not apply to other agreement sectors of the Industrial Union, as in these, the provisions on the extension to working time are included in the texts of the collective agreements.

The Industrial Union aims to remove the 24-hour extension to working time also for industries not listed above during the next collective bargaining.

The annulment of the extension to working time means that as of 2020, the 24 hours of additional work agreed in the Competitiveness Pact will no longer apply to the five agreement sectors of the Industrial Union.

The Competitiveness Agreement will end after 2019 in the agreement sectors for media and print workers, paper distributors and graphical industry salaried employees.

The decision to annul the agreement was made by the Union’s council prior to the merge of the Metalworkers’ Union, Industrial Union TEAM and Woodworkers’ Union.