The National Conciliator has not made a settlement proposal for the university labour dispute. Conciliation will continue this week on Thursday and Friday.
To expedite the negotiations on the new collective agreement, a 24-hour strike by JUKO, JHL, and Pro, representing the employees, will begin at Tampere University on Wednesday, May 7th at 00:01 and end at 23:59.
At Tampere University, the strike will cover all work tasks under the general collective agreement for universities.
Excluded from the strike are essential IT support and core IT services, essential care for samples and animals, and tasks whose omission would pose a danger to human life or health or significant danger to property.
In addition to salary increases, the dispute concerns the teaching hour cap included in the collective agreement, which protects those engaged in teaching and research work at universities from excessive workloads.
Negotiations for the collective agreement covering 35,000 university employees have been ongoing intensively since early February, and the contract period ended at the end of March.
A strike threat in the university sector is rare. The last time university employees went on strike was seven years ago at the University of Helsinki.
The general collective agreement for universities is being negotiated by JUKO, the Trade Union Pro, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL, and the employer organisation Finnish Education Employers (Sivista).
Up-to-date information on the conciliation can be found at yliopistotes.fi/en and on JUKO’s Facebook (in Finnish).
University facts 2025
- Collective agreements | Universities’ general collective agreement and the provisions on teacher training schools
- Agreement period | 1st April, 2023 – 31st March, 2025
- Main contractual parties | JUKO, Trade Union Pro, Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL, and Finnish Education Employers
- JUKO’s negotiators | Head of Collective Bargaining Katja Aho (JUKO), University Advisory Board Chair and Executive Director Tarja Niemelä (Finnish Union of University Professors), Special Adviser Hanna Tanskanen (Trade Union of Education, OAJ), Negotiations Manager Petri Toiviainen (Social Science Professionals), and Negotiations Manager Reetta Kuosmanen (The Union of Research Professionals)
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