The Finnish Tax Administration’s logo outside a service point in Helsinki on 7 November 2024. The Tax Administration wrapped up its consultative negotiations in October, announcing that over 140 employees will be laid off as part of an effort to adapt to a 60-million-euro hole in its budget. (Antti Aimo-Koivisto – Lehtikuva)
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A BELT-TIGHTENING CAMPAIGN by the Finnish government has set off a flurry of consultative negotiations across government agencies and ministries.
Helsingin Sanomat revealed last week that the negotiations have so far resulted in roughly 300 lay-offs, including 141 at the Finnish Tax Administration, 93 at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and 22 at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.
More than a dozen employees have also been laid off by the Finnish Food Authority and Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI).
With most of the negotiations still ongoing, the number is expected to increase significantly. According to Helsingin Sanomat, trade unions in the public sector have estimated that around 3,000–5,000 jobs will disappear in the central administration by the end of the electoral term, in 2027.
The central administration employed 81,700 people in 2023. The government has outlined that the roughly 32,000 employees in various defence and security-related tasks will be largely spared from the cuts.
Riikka Purra, the chairperson of the Finns Party, said before the parliamentary elections that the populist right-wing party would target substantial cuts at the central administration, citing inefficiency.
“Our public sector is fairly inefficient. The public administration has swelled even in this electoral term,” she stated in an interview with YLE in March 2023.
The Finnish government decided during the coalition formation process that large-scale efficiency programmes be launched in various administrative sectors to create 243 million euros in savings by 2027. Mika Niemelä, the head of the budget department at the Ministry of Finance, said to Helsingin Sanomat that at the time it was assumed that the necessary staff cuts could be carried out without resorting to lay-offs – by not replacing outgoing employees.
The government, though, raised the cost-saving target by 150 million euros to almost 400 million euros, as well as brought forward some of the belt-tightening measures, at the framework session last spring. It also agreed to pursue additional cuts worth three billion euros in the public economy.
“Our official view at the time was that this’d pretty surely lead to consultative negotiations and, thereby, to lay-offs,” said Niemelä.
Niko Simola, the chairperson of Trade Union Pro, told Helsingin Sanomat that the framework session marked a turning point: the efficiency drive was initially portrayed as consisting of reductions in state responsibilities and cost savings implemented over a longer period of time.
“You can only talk about a cost-saving programme after the framework session. There haven’t been any real reductions in responsibilities, only savings,” he said.
The Ministry of Finance presented the government a number of measures to trim costs, such as prioritising digital services, slashing property costs and generating additional revenue by raising customer fees, according to Niemelä. After the framework session, it became apparent that such measures would not suffice.
“In many ministries, the number of employees has grown by as much as 10 per cent in recent years. There’s been new laws, but at the same time there’s been an inability to let go of anything and there’s been no critical evaluation of what responsibilities could be scaled back,” he commented to Helsingin Sanomat.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
