The financially beleaguered Scandinavian airline was able to take flight when workers agreed to radical measures including lower wages.
According to Lapland University’s Professor of Labour Law Seppo Koskinen, there are signs of similar salary reductions in Finland as well.
“We already have different companies which have agreed to pay cuts where they will pay salaries later if the company turns a profit. Then there are also cases where the employer is given some time to pay salaries,” Koskinen explained.
The professor believes that employers will continue to use salaries to manoeuvre through challenging economic times.
The Baltic passenger shipping company Viking Line will re-launch salary negotiations next month assumes the Estonian flag for one of its vessels, a move that’s expected to lower employee pay by hundreds of euros each.
Companies follow trends
“Companies are taking example from each other when it comes to savings programmes,” said Viking Line shop steward Kima Ojala.
Finland’s umbrella workers union, the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions or SAK, does not expect a wave of similar wage-reduction tactics, however.
“Naturally there will be negotiations about results-related compensation. However businesses and their employees cannot have any framework agreements which put salaries below those set by the collective bargaining process,” SAK Advocacy Director Niklas Elomaa pointed out.
However Professor Koskinen noted that the difficult economic environment has changed even beyond previous assessments.
“A few years ago we would not have believed that there would be this kind of wage development in any Nordic country. We cannot continue to surf on these old assumptions,” he added.
