Finland’s current three-party government released its list of savings proposals on Tuesday. The list was harsh reading and caused a big blowback, but the coalition says it is standing firm, as the cuts are necessary to revive competitiveness.
If all goes according to plan, Finnish workers would have shorter holidays, unpaid sick leave for the first day of any illness, two fewer paid holidays and reduced Sunday bonuses and overtime payment moving forward.
Yle consulted Statistics Finland figures to ascertain how the proposed cuts would affect the gross income of more than 250 professions. Analysis revealed that midwives will be the profession hit hardest by the government’s austerity. According to Yle calculations, midwives stand to lose 155 euros a month on average, resulting in a total of 1,800 euros per annum.
Other health care service personnel join midwives in the top ten. Mental health nurses, medical nurses and paramedics can all expect to lose more than 100 euros a month. Security services personnel working in the public sector will also see an over hundred-euro cut to their monthly pay.
Uneven fallout
Yle calculated the effects of the cuts using available Statistics Finland data on average salaries. On an individual level, the cuts may be greater or lesser, depending on the amount of overtime and Sunday work the employee tends to do.
In the private sector, the cuts will be hardest on power plant process operators and dockworkers. The monthly wages of both will be over one hundreds lighter after the cuts.
The math confirms what the plan’s critics have projected: people that work in three-shift rotations will suffer the most. Hospitals have no choice but to keep their doors open on Sundays, while state and local government officials’ buildings are locked up tight. Fire fighters are on alert every day of the year, but will receive close to 100 euros less each month for their efforts in the future.
But cuts to supplemental wages for overtime and Sunday will have no effect on a wide variety of managerial positions, as they are not paid according to an hourly rate, but a fixed salary. In other words, the three-shift worker stands to lose a significant chunk of his or her take-home wages if supplementary wages are docked, while the worker’s manager stands to lose nothing.
Union: Industrial workers out 2,000 euros
Yle analysis only used the supplementary wage cuts in its analysis, but the union of industrial workers TEAM, a member of the umbrella labour union SAK, has considered even more of the proposed cuts in its own calculations.
TEAM says that elimination of two paid weekday holidays and the first paid day of sick leave, in addition to the cuts to supplementary wages, mean an average loss of 2,056 euros for its members, corresponding to 5.6 percent of their total salary.
According to the government proposal, extra pay for Sunday work will drop from 100 to 75 percent, while compensation for overtime work will drop to half of its current level. Prime Minister Juha Sipilä says his coalition has calculated that these two changes will save the state 250 million euros.
The government savings proposals must still proceed to parliament for consideration. The coalition is hoping that legislation on the savings will pass a parliamentary vote by next summer. If the proposals are approved by a majority, as is likely, as the three coalition parties currently have a parliamentary majority, the cuts will then come into effect in autumn 2016.
