News / 07.12.2015

UJF president Hanne Aho disappointed at collapse of social contract

The collapse of talks on a social contract is bad news for the UJF.  “It’s galling”, said the union president Hanne Aho.

The social contract was posited as a negotiated alternative to government austerity measures to change the terms and conditions of work. If the package of laws comes into force at the end of 2016, as planned, it will see cuts to annual leave and sick pay.

“The package of laws will treat journalists particularly badly. A social contract would impact far more fairly,” said UJF head of advocacy Petri Savolainen.

Savolainen said that the union is now urgently pushing ahead with drafting collective bargaining agreements to be negotiated in autumn 2016.

Hanne Aho said, though, that there is still scope for a social contract to be agreed, and that the union will work towards one so that the government’s coercive labour laws do not come into effect.

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