Repeated job talks leave Finnish health workers uncertain

Anne Puronaho is taking part in her ninth round of employment negotiations in four years at Central Finland’s wellbeing services county, as it seeks savings to address persistent losses, Yle reports.

Puronaho, a chief shop steward for the health workers’ union Tehy, represents thousands of union members in the county. She says repeated negotiations have made employees anxious about whether their jobs and workplaces will continue.

The latest talks cover possible cuts of up to 492 full-time equivalent positions, expanding the work area to the entire region and changes to the management system. Previous negotiations led to major changes in local services: health centres and inpatient wards closed, whole work communities were disbanded and hundreds of employees were reassigned.

Yle’s survey found that almost all of Finland’s wellbeing services counties, as well as Helsinki and the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa, have held or are holding employment negotiations this year. The counties plan to reduce at least 2,700 full-time equivalent positions, just over one per cent of their approximately 230,000 staff.

Many reductions are being made by leaving jobs vacant or allowing fixed-term contracts to end. Dismissals are generally a last resort. Mika Juutinen, research director at the Local Government and County Employers KT, said some dismissed employees return to the same employer within months when demand for services rises.

Ville-Veikko Ahonen, head of the Ministry of Finance’s wellbeing services county department, said dismissals have mainly affected administration, specialist roles and support services, rather than care staff. Overall staffing at the counties has grown, partly because demand for services has increased, outsourced services have been brought back in-house and reliance on expensive agency workers has fallen.

Central Finland has so far avoided large-scale dismissals, despite undergoing a Ministry of Finance assessment procedure. Under the procedure, an assessment group reviews the finances of a county in difficulty and makes recommendations. Central Finland remained independent, but must save money through 2030 to cover a deficit of about 300 million euros, the largest in Finland in monetary terms.

The combined deficit of Finland’s wellbeing services counties is estimated to exceed 1.5 billion euros by the end of this year.