Labour confederations resist Finnish government pension policy

All three of Finland's national labour confederations have rejected a government decision to gradually raise the minimum retiring age from 63 to 65 years. The decision was taken at the end of February without consulting the confederations, but the government is arguing that later retirement is essential to ensure adequate financing for public services and benefits. Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen has claimed in media interviews that the idea of increasing the age of retirement occurred to him while on a skiing holiday only a couple of days before the government took its decision.

For decades decisions on the Finnish earnings-related pension system have emerged from a consultation process between the government and labour market organisations. The last major reform in the system was made only a few years ago after long and careful deliberation. This reform took effect in 2005 and introduced flexible arrangements enabling employees to retire at any age between 63 and 68 years. Employees over 63 years of age are encouraged to continue working through a system of accelerated pension accrual that increases the eventual pension more rapidly than in previous years of employment. The new Finnish pension system has even been applauded internationally.

The national labour confederations all accept that it should be possible to increase the average age at which employees retire. However, they are not convinced that this can be done through the enforced increase in retiring age that the government now proposes, but will instead require improvements in the quality of working life to help employees cope with longer careers. Only a small fraction of the workforce manages to continue until the present minimum retiring age. The main reasons for early retirement are loss of working capacity and dismissals of older employees.

Thanks to the 2005 pension reform, however, the trend has now been improving. The average age of retirement for the over-50s is already 61.4 years, even though the general average for the workforce as a whole is nowadays slightly less than 60 years.

Labour confederations prepare resistance

The national labour confederations SAK, the Finnish Confederation of Professionals - STTK and the Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff in Finland - Akava have called a meeting of shop stewards and other staff representatives on Saturday 14 March to discuss the pension dispute and to agree on strategies to resist the government&#;8217s decision. The organisations have also prepared a joint petition calling on the government to abandon its decision to raise the retiring age. This petition had already attracted almost 70,000 signatures within two days of its release on the Internet.

Although representatives of SAK, STTK and Akava met Matti Vanhanen on Wednesday, the Finnish Premier was not prepared to compromise on the decision of his government. Another meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 11 March.