Vantaa cuts hit urban services and arts schools

Vantaa’s largest number of planned layoffs will fall on its urban environment division, while the city’s music institute and visual arts school face significant changes, Yle reports. The outcome of the city’s change negotiations has been shared with some staff, but Vantaa says it will officially announce the results next week.

The number of layoffs is expected to be below the original target of 200. Yle reports that around 50 people will be laid off from the urban environment division, and the positions of eight employees retiring will remain vacant. No staff furloughs are planned for the division.

The division is responsible for planning, building and maintaining Vantaa’s urban spaces, as well as parking enforcement and environmental protection.

All teachers employed as public officials at the Vantaa Visual Arts School will be laid off. Some may be offered the option of moving to an annual working-hours system. Several public officials at the Vantaa Music Institute will also be laid off; some may instead be offered part-time work as full-time hourly teachers.

An online petition calling for the continuation of basic arts education had collected just under 1,900 signatures by Friday morning. The music institute and visual arts school are Finland’s second-largest municipal arts education institutions by teaching hours. Together, they have about 2,800 students, most of them children and young people.