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Proposals for the Government Programme 2027

TEK emphasises the rights of employees. The task of labour legislation is to protect employees, the weaker party in working life. Working life conditions must also be fair for those who have moved to Finland.

The decisions of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's Government require a repair kit that includes, among other things:

• generally applicable collective agreements
• reinstatement of the right to tax deduction of membership fees for employed persons
• strengthening the operational possibilities of the National Conciliator.

In TEK

TEK is a collective and individual-level advocacy organisation whose activities emphasise openness and member democracy.

TEK supports young people’s employment and students’ opportunities to enter a traineeship. TEK facilitates the integration of its foreign members into Finnish working life.

TEK uses social media in its communications and takes into account that nearly 5,000 TEK members are foreign-language speakers. Communication emphasises the benefits of union membership for both members and those who should join TEK.

At TEK's General Council

In council meetings, live interaction between members and administration is increased. The possibility of foreign-language speakers to participate in the work of the General Council and committees will be ensured.

The General Council is informed of TEK’s international cooperation and greetings from sister organisations with whom best practices are shared.

TEK follows a common practice in the organisational and business world that the chairperson of the General Council has the right to attend and speak at the meetings of TEK's Board.

During the ongoing government term, numerous weakenings have been made to the position of employees – we want a TEK that is a strong defender of humane working life in societal debate. In addition to equal working life, TEK must promote an ambitious climate policy. We want to make TEK’s activities more inclusive and transparent.

• We want Finland to be the leading country in equal working life, where the quality and productivity of work is raised by increasing well-being at work and competence, not by weakening the position of employees. The chaining of fixed-term employment relationships, especially at the university and the state, must be addressed. The resources of universities and research should be increased, as competence creates more well-being.
• Improve the quality of working life by reducing working hours. Experiments have shown that shorter working hours lead to less stress for employees, more employment of the unemployed, improved service levels and productivity, and better coping at work.
• TEK activities should be made more approachable, especially with regard to members with an international background. The activities of the TEK Group for International Experts must be established and expanded.
• The position of employee representatives and the right to access information at workplaces will be strengthened. The employee representatives must also represent temporary agency workers used by the company.
• TEK must promote the trade unions’ right of action. It would strengthen the supervision of working conditions, eliminate unfair competition, and benefit legitimate employers.

More information: Linktree

Technology professionals create hope

The world needs solutions, and the academic people of technology have the keys to them. The Greens strive for a working life in which everyone stays involved and Finland commits to combating the climate crisis and loss of biodiversity.

Security and learning in change
The increase in unemployment and the cuts made by the Government require firm advocacy from TEK. TEK should actively promote the development of new adult education support and continuous learning models. In labour market negotiations, we safeguard purchasing power and strengthen the position of employee representatives. Conditions for good work include clear rules for hybrid work, strong mental occupational safety and health against exhaustion, and opportunities for shorter working hours.

Equal working life
Diversity is a source of innovation. As an organisation, we support family friendliness and promote pay transparency in order to eliminate unjustified pay differences. We eliminate discrimination against international talent. We support the future of young people by strengthening student cooperation and resisting unpaid traineeships. We are opposed to age discrimination. We make working life accessible and appreciate neuro-diversity so that everyone’s strengths can be utilised.

Sustainable world
Technology professionals have the skills needed to solve the world's problems. We will implement TEK’s sustainable growth programme and require high RDI investments in sustainable solutions. Technology must be ethical: artificial intelligence must serve democracy and people, not erode them. Environmentally friendly and responsible work is a fundamental right for every employee.

More information: Instagram

Towards sustainable working life!

The task of TEK and the academic people of technology is to bring new hope, high-quality working life and employment to Finland.

• TEK promotes equal and flexible working life. Support for employee representatives should be strengthened, and flexible working hours should be made possible for everyone who needs them.
• TEK must promote ambitious climate and nature policy and the green transition by all available means.
• High-quality labour market work, promoting RDI investments and bringing the profession together form the core of TEK’s activities.
• Equality must be taken into account in all TEK's activities. TEK’s structures and operating models must be developed to ensure open and equal operations and decision-making.
• International cooperation strengthens not only organisations but TEK's members as well. TEK must take into account its increasingly international membership and, as an organisation, become more international itself.

The coalition includes TEKin Demarit, Left and The Greens.

Voice for a better working life

iTyö serves as the voice of the TEK members and ensures that TEK serves its members in an expert and effective manner. iTyö is politically independent and promotes the interests of the TEK members throughout the council term without any engagements. Our objectives are summarised as follows:

Promoting a good working life

This means working life based on good interaction, development of management, and taking into account the balance between working life and leisure time throughout one's career. Evolving career paths, continuous learning both at work and during periods away from work must be accommodated proactively in modern working life.

Continuous development of working conditions

Improving salary levels, the development of work practices and technology, and the internationalisation of working life highlight the importance of advancing our profession’s pay and working conditions amid the transformations of working life.

Strengthening the appreciation of our competence and education

Competence in tech safeguards sustainable well-being and competitiveness. This requires appropriate efforts. The appreciation of our profession is based on maintaining the high level of our members' degrees. For example, the right to grant a doctoral degree should be retained only in the university sector. Political decision-making must ensure that the value and quality of degrees and education are maintained across the board. 

A vote for iTyö is a vote for strong advocacy and sustainable working life!

Trust is the way forward

We want TEK to build a trust-based, competent and cohesive Finland.

At workplaces, this means good management, strong trust and genuine dialogue.

As local agreement practices change, it is increasingly important to support employee representatives in negotiations on local terms of employment. Local agreements must also be fair and balanced from the employee's perspective.

Labour market activities must focus on the most important issues: terms of employment, safeguarding purchasing power, and supporting salary development. The reconciliation of family and work will be promoted through flexible working hours, remote work, and working time banks. Discrimination against pregnancy must be tackled with determination.

Human capital is Finland’s most important resource. We defend the status of science and competence, adult education support that supports lifelong learning, and the possibility to take a second higher education degree free of charge. Social security must be developed so that the transition between studies, work and entrepreneurship is smooth. Traineeships for young people must be secured in all economic cycles. The aim is to extend working careers by means of incentives. Finland is to be kept attractive to talents through effective immigration and strong integration.

The green transition and other strategic technologies are an opportunity for the whole country to create new, high-value-added jobs. This requires collaboration between companies, research institutes and higher education institutions, as well as compliance with the Act on Financing of Research and Development. 

With these goals, we are building a successful Finland.

Growth, productivity and innovation: The salaries and career paths of TEK members are strengthened when companies invest. We promote a stable RDI environment, smoother licensing, and the transfer of research to the market, also through ownership.

Competence throughout the career: We strengthen the foundation of mathematics and natural sciences and the attractiveness of technology. We will build a modular continuous learning model and make ethical AI competence a basic readiness for everyone.

Fair working life: We support salary development along with productivity, increase transparency and strengthen fair rules in local agreements. We will develop hybrid work to make it productive and supportive of wellbeing.

Doctors of Science in Technology: We will set up a Doctoral Committee to improve the labour market position of those with doctoral degrees and to link competence to the RDI needs and management of companies. We promote predictable research careers and better management.

Entrepreneurship and ownership: We will improve the transition between paid employment and entrepreneurship as well as strengthen and develop TEK's entrepreneurial services. We promote encouraging ownership.

Immigration: We promote networks that support smooth work-based immigration, recognition of degrees, and integration. We insist on non-discriminatory recruitment.

Safety and sustainability: We support energy and network investments in a technology-neutral manner, strengthen cyber security, and build responsible material chains.

TEK on the members’ side: We prioritise the benefit of the members, modernise digital services, and strengthen the sense of community.

More information: Website

Our goals for the TEK General Council term 2026–2029

The position of TEK members will be strengthened

• decent work, decent pay
• quality of life through working time management
• strong support in situations of change in working life
• secured lifelong competence development
• success and well-being in high-quality, well-managed work communities
• better reconciliation of family and work in collective agreements.

TEK renews, reforms and influences

• labour market negotiations
• developing a good working life
• improving the quality of the entire education system
• creating new jobs
• in the development and responsible utilisation of future technology, including artificial intelligence
• building a sustainable living environment
• in societal issues important to the members
• improving the position of those with doctoral degrees in the labour market
• strengthening the position and competence of employee representatives who are TEK members, including in local agreements.

The coalition Knowledge and skills, growth and fair working life is the most influential collaboration ring of TEK’s General Council. The common themes of the electoral alliances included in the coalition are member services, a sense of community, and extensive advocacy from the graduation stage to an experienced senior.

We promote good quality of life, and its foundation is competence, innovativeness, entrepreneurship, internationalisation and competitiveness.

We promote the cause of TEK members in workplaces, collective agreements and societal forums.

The coalition includes iTyö, the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party.

Unity and Teekkari Spirit is a group that plays an active role in TEK's council, board, committees and in other bodies of TEK and its stakeholders. 

The group’s history extends to the early days of TEK, when STS ('The Finnish Technical Society') and KAL ('The Finnish Association of Higher Education Engineers and Architects') merged. The background of the group can be found in the STS, which fostered the community spirit and integration of the profession. The main ideas of the group have remained the unification of the profession, technology as a developer of the society, political independence, and education and innovation.

The group has played an important role in forming TEK's current council agreement. During the forthcoming council term, the group works to ensure that TEK members have access to the best possible tools and services that support the development of competence and salaries, working life skills, and well-being at work.

The group will continue its determined work to promote technology entrepreneurship and promote discussion on entrepreneurship and ownership.

In addition, we will improve the utilisation of member data by continuing the Datax project we have launched, take TEK into the future by anticipating the opportunities and threats posed by technology, and promote the inclusion of bachelor’s degree graduates in TEK.

The group’s four themes are the role and ethics of technology, a support network in situations of change, an increasingly international profession, and competitive competence from the beginning to the end of a career.

More information: LinkedIn

TEK Youth and Innovators promote a better working life from the perspective of young TEK members. We will build a fresh and open labour movement while helping TEK to be relevant to the academic people of technology. 

As has been shown in recent years, the conditions in the labour market are sometimes volatile, and political decisions have turned the rules of working life in many respects into a worse direction for young people. We want to change this development, which is why TEK’s services and societal influence work are more important than for a long time. 

Our TEK...

• invests more in the employment of recent graduates and young tech professionals
• makes better use of data and uses it to provide you with the right services at the right time in different turns of life
• makes working life humane and equal
• is harnessing the academic people of technology to solve the climate crisis and biodiversity loss
• is truly international.

You can find out more about us on our website (teknuoret.fi). Also check out our social media for our views on the council elections and the work of the council! (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn: @tekinnuoret)

More information: Website

TEK of the Future is the only politically independent coalition.

We, the members of the TEK of the Future, are united by attitude, skills and willingness to develop activities. We will build an influential trade union that serves its members better and anticipates changes in the labour market. More and more of us are both in paid employment and entrepreneurs. We need a TEK that responds to the needs and changing ways of working.

We will initiate the change, speed it up and ensure the direction. Our list of candidates consists of both experienced and new TEK influencers in suitable proportion.

The coalition includes Unity and Teekkari Spirit as well as TEK Youth and Innovators.

The TEK electoral alliance of The Finns Party wants to strengthen the position of graduate engineers, architects and other technical experts in working life and society. TEK must be the advocate of its members, not a political or ideological actor. It is the duty of the trade union to safeguard the prerequisites for working, fair pay, and appreciation for competence.

We defend the freedom of our members to work without unnecessary regulation, bureaucracy and ideological guidance. TEK must focus on its core tasks: advocacy in the labour market, support for career development, and legal protection for members. The transformation of working life, digitalisation and the introduction of artificial intelligence must be implemented in such a manner that tech experts benefit from their competence and do not become a victim of it.

We promote a fair and transparent working life in which there is no room for age discrimination, underpaid salaries and chaining of fixed-term contracts. The value of highly educated work must be reflected in pay. TEK must act boldly and independently in the interests of its members, listening to the member field.

We would like to emphasise that a possible shortage of experts in the field of technology, now and in the future, must be solved with domestic labour by investing in conversion training, continuing education and increasing the appreciation of technology. Finnish students have the right to receive teaching in Finnish at school, as learning in their mother tongue leads to top expertise. The appreciation of the technology sector must be strengthened in order for Finland to maintain its competence and competitiveness in the future as well.

More information: Facebook

The Liberal Party – Freedom to Choose seeks to promote widespread freedom of individuals and livelihoods.

Our goals in TEK's election:

Work and part-time entrepreneurship

• You must be able to change your employer easily without being subject to any limitation or penalty, such as a notice period, ban on competition, or withdrawal of unemployment benefits. TEK’s advocacy work must support labour mobility to counterbalance the labour market reforms carried out by the Government.
• You have the right to sell your expertise. TEK must support and advise on matters related to part-time entrepreneurship and use advocacy work to remove obstacles to entrepreneurship, such as the arbitrary definition of the YEL insurance by the tax authorities.

Collective agreements and local agreements

• Your salary is best increased through career development. Collective agreements form a good contractual basis, but the employee and employer must be able to agree on the terms and conditions themselves if they so wish. Collective agreements must aim for simplicity and the possibility of flexible solutions.
• The general applicability of collective agreements must be abandoned. TEK must support workplace-specific and personal negotiations and the development of the negotiation skills of its members.

Fairer compensation for work

• You should be able to decide what you use your salary-based euros for, without any constraints from the employer or tax authority.
• You must have the right to claim your salary in euros and choose taxable employment benefits as a gross salary supplement instead of alternative currencies such as lunch and cultural payment instruments. TEK must oppose the use of alternative currencies and tax advantages.

More information: Website

Member services
TEK aims to develop member services by responding to members’ needs, providing high-quality advice, developing digital services, organising training and events, and offering benefits. By harnessing data, we can develop new, modern services. Legal and member services should be guaranteed in Swedish.

Education
Finland must have world-class technical education. TEK should promote high-quality education and research to ensure that graduate engineers, natural scientists and architects are competitive both nationally and internationally. Education should meet industry needs, research should be innovative and accessible, and study programmes should be offered in Finland’s official languages. Lifelong learning is essential.

Equality and gender equality 
TEK must advance equality and gender equality within its own organisation, in working life and in society. This requires work within TEK, in collective agreement negotiations, and in political decision-making. The Swedish language should be taken into account in TEK’s oversight of legislation, public policy, and the position of TEK members in society.

Innovation and technology policy as well as sustainable development
Sustainable development and an ever-changing society both require TEK, as the representative of Finland’s technical expertise, to take a leading role in technology and innovation policy. TEK should promote sustainability goals across all its areas of operation.

The labour market and the changed knowledge work
TEK should work for competitive pay, good working conditions and collective bargaining agreements in Swedish.