The 20 nurses recruited from the Philippines by the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa will arrive here today. Hwlainfin Sanomat, April 15, 2010 The long-awaited group of 20 Filipino nurses is to arrive today - Thursday. These nurses are only a small step on the way to improving the acute shortage of nursing professionals in Finland, but it is a major shift in the recruitment policy of Finnish hospitals. This is the first time for the public health sector to look for labour force actively from outside of Europe. For the first time they will also be placed in the demanding special fields of nursing. ... Filipino

YLE, November 22, 2007 Parliamentary question time was dominated on
Thursday by a fierce torrent of opposition comments over the
government's action during the nurses' dispute. Parties on the
opposition benches criticised Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen for siding
with employers during the dispute. The Social Democrats said the
government had handled the nurses' dispute badly. SDP Parliamentary
Chair Tarja Filatov said the right to engage in industrial action must
not be restricted by law, it was a basic right. However, the main
opposition party was supportive on the issue of new guidelines for
action to protect the public in future disputes. ... Parliamentary

NewsRoom Finland, November 22, 2007 Matti Vanhanen (centre), the
Finnish prime minister, on Wednesday faulted the Union of Health and
Social Care Professionals (Tehy) for what he said was an exceptionally
heavy-handed form of industrial action. "Targeting industrial action on
targets where, according to official estimates, the result would have
been the loss of human lives within hours is unprecedented in the
history of Finnish industrial action," Mr Vanhanen said at a Finnish
Central Chamber of Commerce event. Mr Vanhanen added the union should
have warned its members what kind of consequences they would face in
the event of deaths ... Finnish

YLE, November 21, 2007 Jaana Laitinen-Pesola, the chair of the Union of
Health and Social Care Professionals (Tehy), said she's disappointed by
recent statements made by the Commission for Local Authority Employers
(KT). The employers' group claims that Tehy has overestimated upcoming
pay raises for its members. KT told YLE that the new agreement for Tehy
members initially offers nurses just five euros more per month than the
previous rejected contract. In an interview on Wednesday with YLE's
current events radio programme Ykkösaamu, Laitinen-Pesola said she
hopes KT would stick to the numbers discussed during contract
negotiations. She added that she is completely surprised and
disappointed by KT's comments. Laitinen-Pesola also said that during

NewsRoom Finland, November 21, 2007 Two prominent Finnish labour law
professors hold diametrically opposed views as to whether the pay deal
negotiated by the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (Tehy)
is applicable only to Tehy members or to nurses in general. Tehy had
said on Monday that only its members would benefit from a pay deal it
had negotiated with the Commission for Local Authority Employers. The
pay increases secured by Tehy are markedly higher than those included
in the broader municipal sector collective agreement that Tehy had
rejected. ... Finnish

Helsingin Sanomat, November 21, 2007 It appears that Monday's
settlement between the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals
(Tehy) and the Commission for Local Authority Employers (KT) did not
end all disagreements between the two organisations. ... At a press conference
held yesterday at the office of National Conciliator Juhani Salonius,
Tehy chairwoman Jaana Laitinen-Pesola and KT's labour market director
Markku Jalonen clashed on their interpretation of the amount of the pay
rise that the contract contained. ... Nurses

YLE, November 21, 2007 Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen has warned unions
not to threaten the welfare of the public through industrial action. He
added the nurses' pay dispute had lowered the government's threshold to
legally intervene in disputes threatening basic security. Vanhanen
expressed his surprise that the nurses' union Tehy had forgotten
publicly to tell its members what responsibility they would have to
bear for any deaths that might have occurred following planned mass
resignations. Speaking at a Chamber of Commerce forum in Helsinki, The
Prime Minister also criticised the opposition for its behaviour during
talks between the nurses' union Tehy and local authority employers. ...
Vanhanen

YLE, November 20, 2007 The Commission for Local Authority Employers
(KT) says that the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (Tehy)
is overestimating the pay raises included in the nurses' contract
signed Monday. Tehy says the deal will bring its members pay hikes of
22-28 percent over the next four years. It had been seeking a raise of
24 percent over three years - nearly twice the raise agreed with other
municipal employees in September. Then a smaller nurses' union, SuPer,
accepted a two-year contract providing wage hikes of about 12 percent.
The employers' group estimates that Tehy members' wages will go up by
an average of 15.7 - 17.7 percent during the contract period. ... Employers

YLE, November 20, 2007 Over 100 municipalities will have to raise taxes
to pay for Tehy members' salary hikes, estimates Risto Parjanne,
director of the Commission for Local Authority Employers. He also
predicts that the contract will lead to reforms in municipal services.
In an interview on YLE's morning discussion programme Aamu-TV, Parjanne
said he foresees changes in the structure of services as Finland's
population ages. He added that electronic networks and outsourcing
services will be necessary. Parjanne said that municipalities will need
to be frugal, and that support will be needed from the government as
well. However, Dr Risto Pelkonen, the head of a mediation board set up
to seek a settlement in the nurses' pay dispute, said he does not

Nursing staff to receive 22-28% wage increases over four years.
Helsingin Sanomat, November 20, 2007 On Monday afternoon, the council
of Finland's Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (TEHY)
unanimously approved a settlement proposal put forward by the mediation
board set up to resolve the labour conflict, in which over 12,000
nurses had threatened to resign en masse on Monday night. The decision
thus averts a situation that had caused alarm and fears that the
country's health service would be more or less paralysed. ... TEHY

NewsRoom Finland, November 19, 2007 Finland's Union of Health and
Social Care Professionals (Tehy) on Monday approved a conciliation
committee's settlement proposal, averting a wide-ranging mass
resignation campaign. Tehy added in a statement the deal consisted of
wage increases ranging from 22 to 28 per cent across the four-year
agreement period. Tehy said further the agreement and the pay increases
applied only to its members and that it was separate from the municipal
collective labour agreement. The separate agreement means Tehy will
have its own shop stewards and negotiation practices at local talks.
... Finnish

YLE, November 19, 2007 The General Council of Tehy, the Union of Health
and Social Care Professionals, unanimously approved a negotiated pay
deal reached late Sunday. The Commission for Local Authority Employers,
or KT, has also given its unanimous approval to the contract, thereby
averting industrial action in which about 12,000 nurses threatened to
start a mass resignation campaign. The contract gives Tehy members pay
increases of 22 to 28 percent over the next four years. They will also
get a Christmas bonus of EUR 270. ... Nurses

Some Finnish patients might be airlifted to Sweden. Helsingin Sanomat,
November 16, 2007 The massive Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa
(HUS) is preparing for threatened industrial action by the Union of
Health and Social Care Professionals (Tehy) by transferring some
patients from units that are to be shut down to others that are still
operating. However, the district is waiting until the latest possible
moment to make the bulk of the transfers. ... Helsinki

Parliament passes patient safety law 113-68. Helsingin Sanomat,
November 16, 2007 The Union of Salaried Employees (TU) has promised to
implement measures to assist the Union of Health and Social Care
Professionals (Tehy) if Tehy wants such support. The offer of support
came a day before the final reading of the government's bill for a
patient safety law that would compel nurses to work at tasks considered
vital for patient safety even if they are taking part in the Tehy mass
resignation campaign. The measure was passed in Parliament at about
noon by a vote of 113 to 68. The vote went strictly along party lines
... Union

NewsRoom Finland, November 16, 2007 Finland's Parliament on Thursday
passed the controversial patient safety bill by 113 votes to 68 with 18
lawmakers absent. An opposing motion submitted by the Social Democratic
party was voted down by MPs for the ruling Centre party, National
Coalition party, the Green League and the Swedish People's party. The
bill was debated for four and a half hours before the final vote. The
bill president, having cancelled a trip to the US, is to sign the bill
into law by the end of the day. The will enable the government to force
some of the thousands of nurses belonging to the Union of Health and
Social Care Professionals (Tehy) who have signed up to a mass
resignation campaign to stay in their posts. A minister had said in