Serious efforts to conciliate the labour dispute in the ICT sector

Conciliation of the dispute between the Trade Union Pro and Service Sector Employers Palta continues on a daily basis. The work stoppage would take place on 27 November–1 December.

Conciliation at the National Conciliator’s Office continued on Thursday 16 November. According to National Conciliator Minna Helle, some progress has been made but there is still a lot of work to do.

• As yet it is impossible to say anything about when and how the dispute will be resolved. The aim is to find a solution as soon as possible, but due to the extent and gravity of the matters involved this is going to take time, Helle says.

The dispute between the Trade Union Pro and Service Sector Employers Palta is concerned with the pay and working conditions of clerical employees in the ICT sector. The views of the parties especially concerning the use of temporary agency workers are very far from each other.

The work stoppage would start on 27 November at 6.00 and end on 1 December at 23.59. The stoppage would concern all work done by clerical employees under the collective agreement for the ICT sector in all companies covered by the agreement, including teleoperators, telephone companies, contact centres, and network construction and maintenance.

According to Pro, the work stoppage would concern about 12,000 clerical employees, experts, superiors and temporary agency workers in the sector.