Opposition party representatives put Finland’s three-party ruling coalition through the ringer on Thursday during parliamentary question time. On Tuesday, the coalition had said it planned to improve Finland’s global market competitiveness by lowering wages on Sundays, cutting holiday entitlements and making the first day of sick leave unpaid.
Several MPs put Prime Minister Sipilä and the rest of his coalition to task for what they saw as intentionally targeting low-income work and jobs dominated by women.
Left Alliance MP Aino-Kaisa Pekonen proclaimed that before she became a member of parliament, she worked in the health care sector. She checked her wage slips going back to 2008 to see how the proposed government savings would have affected her earnings. By her calculations, she said, the proposed cuts would have meant a 1,300 euro decrease in her meagre yearly income.
“Explain to me: how does squeezing a low-income woman make Finland’s export businesses more competitive?” she asked the prime minister.
Sipilä responded by explaining that the savings produced would in part be directed towards reducing the cost of social and health care payments in the private sector.
“This will boost the export competitiveness to which you refer,” said Sipilä.
13 percent of women work on Sundays
Social Democratic Party MP Tytti Tuppurainen inquired whether the overall impact of the proposed savings measures on families, equality and the Finnish welfare state had been established.
Sipilä said that in the case of the reduction to Sunday wages, at least, its effects on different sectors were carefully evaluated.
“About 13 percent of women and 12 percent of men work on Sundays,” the prime minister explained.
Sipilä also admitted he was aware that Sunday’s extra pay was a far larger percentage of a lower-income earner’s monthly wage than other earners.
“This is why we decided to only cut the supplemental Sunday wage to 75 percent and not 50,” he said.
Heinäluoma: The people have been deceived
Social Democrat MP and former parliamentary speaker Eero Heinäluoma pressed the coalition on its sidestep of the country’s age-old collective bargaining system, asking when the government was granted the authority to decide on the terms and conditions of employment.
“Instead of employees and employers sitting down to work things out or meeting locally at a workplace, you in the government assume the authority to decide how much salary is paid if workers are sick. Since when have you had the authority to decide how long holidays can last, or if overtime wages should be paid, or Sunday compensation practices?” Heinäluoma asked.
Heinäluoma noted that the prime minister made no mention of such things on the election trail, where he did not shy away from saying he opposed the National Coalition Party’s proposal to cut first-sick-day wages.
“Esteemed Prime Minister, do you understand at all that people feel you have deceived them?” said Heinäluoma.
Sipilä defended himself by pointing out that the government tried on two occasions to forge a labour market accord with Finland’s unions, to no avail.
“A joint agreement was our number one goal, and still is,” he said.
