Buses, cars and pedestrians in downtown Turku in September 2021. The City of Turku announced this month the launch of consultative negotiations, pointing to an estimate in its budget draft for next year that municipal finances have to be adjusted to the tune of about 50 million euros. (Emmi Korhonen – Lehtikuva)
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THE TRADE UNION for the Public and Welfare Sectors (JHL) has voiced its concern about the consequences of consultative negotiations launched by the City of Turku.
The City of Turku announced the negotiations earlier this month, pointing to an estimate in its budget draft for next year that municipal finances have to be adjusted to the tune of 50 million euros.
Tuomas Heikkinen, the chief of staff at Turku, said to YLE at the time that education staff will be ruled outside the negotiations, but in other respects the city has declined to comment on the staff impacts of the process.
JHL last Monday estimated that the negotiations could result in the termination of 180 jobs, along with furloughs, the conversions of full-time contracts to part-time contracts and the scaling back of staff perquisites. Overall staff costs are to account for 10.8 million euros of the targeted savings, according to the trade union.
With the measures likely to increase the workload of remaining employees, they will “significantly undermine” coping and well-being at the workplace, as well as the quality of services provided to local residents, warned Mari Keturi, the CEO of JHL.
The union also warned that although the measures may deliver short-term cost savings, their long-term effects might be very costly for the city.
“Cutbacks in employee benefits and poorer working conditions will make the City of Turku a less attractive employer. This can make it harder for the city to recruit and retain skilled workforce,” elucidated Keturi. “Poorer employee well-being and a drop in employee retention are very probably going to lead to higher costs in the future.”
Employees at the city were disappointed but not surprised by news of the negotiations, according to Maarit Salonen, the chief shop steward for JHL at the City of Turku.
“The personnel do not feel good about this at all. We do not have any unnecessary employees here,” she said in a press release.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
