Skip to content

Labour market glossary

The Regional State Administrative Agency (AVI)

AVI is responsible for regional supervision and direction of occupational safety and health.

Trade association (trade union)

employees’ interest and service organisation in the labour market.

Salaries and wages

informs how much salary with different kinds of bonuses has been earned during a certain period of time

Wage development guarantee

a clause in a wage agreement by which an equal wage development is tried to be secured in non-flexible branches.

Earnings-related security

an allowance proportioned to the wage, for example, during periods of unemployment. Only to unemployment fund members.

Gross salary

basic salary with bonuses before taxes.

Euro or cent line

euro or cent-based increases agreed to all salaried persons instead of percentage increases.

EWC (European Works Council)

enables the employees participation in decisions concerning their work. At European level, over one thousand companies are within EWC operations, and they have altogether 15 million employees. There are more than 20,000 EWC representatives. Over 210 companies operating in Finland are within the scope of EWC operation, and 60 of them have their head office in Finland. There are more than 600 EWC representatives in Finland.

Index

a ration that expresses the change in some variables, for example wages, from time to time.

Arrangement margin

the salary increase item agreed in a centralised solution, which was agreed on either union or company-specifically.

JUKO

the Negotiation Organisation for Public Sector Professionals, which negotiates the collective agreeements of Akava’s members working in the public sector (municipality, state, church, universities).

Centralised solution

an agreement on wages and other employment terms made by trade union confederations (e.g. Akava and EK), based on which member unions negotiate their own collective labour agreements. The Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) announced in xx that it will end the negotiations of centralised solutions due to its change of rules.

Central organisation agreement

an agreement between two or several employee and employer federations on a subject in the labour market, such as the protection against employment termination or the occupational safety and health.

Non-competition agreement

an agreement by which an employee’s right to conclude a new employment contract with someone who is engaged in certain kind of competing activities with the employer.

Union round

a wage settlement negotiated and agreed by a trade union and an employer union. YTN negotiates the agreements of senior salaried employees in the private sector.

Bonuses

bonuses agreed in the collective labour agreements of the field or personally, which result from experience, the demanding nature of the work, conditions or such other.

Shop steward (liaison, contact person)

employees’ primary representative who is elected by employees based on the provisions of collective labour agreements.

Elected representative

is corresponding to a shop steward in those fields, which do not have a valid collective labour agreement.

Low wage item

a wage increase item defined in a centralised solution, which is determined based on the low-level wages of the field and the purpose of which is to increase the wages in low-paid field relatively more than in other fields.

Change security

the right of an employee losing employment to access employment programme on certain conditions

Women’s salary item

a wage increase item agreed in centralised solutions, which is determined based on the female domination in a field and by which the wage differences between men and women are tried to be reduced.

Net salary

the salary after taxes, employment pension fee and employee’s unemployment insurance premium.

Head start agreement

the collective labour agreement concluded first in the negotiation round.

Salary

remuneration for work and time spent for work.

Wage drift

the difference between the increase in wages and agreed increases during a contract period.

Wage legacy

a theoretical quantity, which tells how much a wage increase taken place during the year increases the salary of the following year.

Wage tables

tell the minimum wages of each sector.

Hiring system

hiring principles and regulations in a contract branch or in a company.

Unpaid leave in exchange for working longer hours (Pekkas-vapaat)

a general unpaid leave programme, which was started in 1984 and where the shortening of working hours by a hundred hours in several years was included in. The models of shortening working hours are agreed on in collective labour agreements sector-specifically.

Tailgate

A binding entry on the implementation of wage increases determined in a collective labour agreement if no agreement is reached locally.

Percentage line

proportionally equal increases are agreed to all employees.

Real wage

the purchasing power of the salary.

Non-disclosure agreement

According to law, employees may not disclose the employer’s trade or business secrets during the employment relationship. The aim of a non-disclosure agreement or a single non-disclosure clause is generally to either extend the number of confidential matters or continue the validity of confidentiality.

Mixed line

a wage increase is agreed in the form of x cent, however, at least y percentage.

Solidary wage policy

the aim is to increase low wages more than others.

Social package

reforms of social or labour legislation agreed jointly in connection with an incomes policy or centralised solution.

Adjustment negotiation

a negotiation during the contract period whether changed circumstances lead to changes in the agreement.

Equality plan

The Equality Act obligates all employers who employ over 30 persons to prepare an equality plan with the representatives of the personnel.

Background group

A group consisting of the members in the field must be appointed for each contract sector of YTN. The background groups, among other things, prepare for the collective labour agreements in their field.

Right to information

Shop stewards have the right to receive information on an individual employee’s salary and employment provisions on the said employee’s consent or on an employee group when there is a reason to suspect of wage discrimination based on gender.

Contractor’s obligation and liability

the contractor’s responsibility to make sure that the subcontractors comply with laws and agreements.

Income policy agreement (tupo agreement)

an agreement by the government and labour market associations on financial, income division and social measures. Income policy agreements were valid during 1969–2007. Many now self-evident benefits were for the first time agreed in income policy agreements (e.g. bonus holiday pay in 1972 and winter holiday in 1977).

Incomes policy

cooperation between different interest groups and the government with the aim of adjusting total income growth of the national economy and its division to other economic policy realities, for example, the growth in real income to the development of productivity and gain low inflation.

Efficiency wages

the wage tied with the efficiency of a person, a person group or a company

Financial and/or production-related grounds for termination

According to the Employment Contracts Act, the termination on these grounds is only possible if the work to be offered has diminished substantially and permanenty for financial or production-related reasons or for reasons arising from reorganisation of the employer’s operations. The employment contract cannot be terminated if the employee can be placed in or trained for other duties.

Collective labour agreement

a field-specific agreement where the employment terms and conditions in a field are agreed. YTN has approximately 30 national and company-specific collective labour agreements in the industry as well as business and service sectors.

Occupational safety manager

the employer’s representative in the cooperation of occupational safety.

Occupational safety representative

the representative of the personnel in the cooperation of occupational safety.

Occupational safety authority

is divided into five responsibility areas in occupational safety by Regional State Administrative Agencies. In the areas of responsibility within occupational safety regionally monitors the compliance with rules and regulations concerning occupational safety. In addition to supervision, we give instructions and guidelines in issues relating to occupational safety and health and the employment terms and conditions.

Labour Court

hears and tries the disputes and work peace breaches resulting from the the application and interpretation of collective labour agreements. In addition, the Labour Court settles, as the appellate court, the appeals made on the decisions by the validation board of the universal applicability of a collective labour agreement and the appeals made on certain decisions concerning exceptions by the Labour Council.  The Labour Court is in the above-mentioned matters the only court with jurisdiction. Its judgments cannot be appealed, they are final and immediately enforceable. However, the Supreme Court may cancel the Labour Court’s judgment on the same preconditions as other courts’ judgments. The Labour Court does not hear all labour law related disputes. Disputes arising out of an employment contract between an employer and an employee are heard in an appropriate District Court. Corresponding disputes of civil servants are heard in an Administrative Court.

Collective civil-servant agreement

a collective agreement in public sectors where the employment terms and conditions are agreed. The contracting party for Akava’s public sector members is the Negotiation Organisation for Public Sector Professionals (JUKO).

Liaison

the representative of the personnel and the trade union at workplaces.

Co-operation negotiations

are based on the Act on Co-operations within Undertakings. The Act on Co-operations within Undertakings is applied to those companies which regularly employ at least 20 persons. The objective of the Act on Co-operations within Undertakings is to promote the cooperation between the personnel and the employer so that the employees would have better possibilities to affect matters concernign their work and the working conditions.

Contact person

the representative of the personnel and the trade union at workplaces.

General increase

the wage increase in the form of cent, euro or percentage agreed in the agreement, which is paid to all belonging to the scope of the agreement.

Senior salaried employee

works in expert, superior, manager or management level assignments. The work tasks of senior salaried employees are characterised by their relatively large independency and responsibility. The work tasks of senior salaried employees require high education or knowledge and skills brought by work experience. A high education refers to education gained at universities or universities of applied sciences or such corresponding/parallel education (e.g. engineer degrees, secretary degrees (HSO). Senior salaried employees do not work in the upper management of the company. Working as senior salaried employees’ superior does not exclude the person from the concept of senior salaried employees.

Overtime work

work exceeding the agreed working hours on the superior’s request, which must be compensated to the employee.

Staff association

YTN’s staff associations are a part of the senior salaried employees’ lobbying. A staff association may operate at unit, company or group level. The goal of the staff associations is to boost the local lobbying of senior salaried employees. Staff associations are independent organisations, the operation of which is decided by their members.

YTN

Akava’s Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff YTN is a negotiation organisation, which is responsible for the contractual work of senior salaried employees in the industry as well as in business and service sectors. YTN has 19 Akava unions, through which it represents 170,000 experts and superiors in different sectors.

 

In English
Asiointipalvelu