Espoo, Vantaa cities´ massive job cut moves put services at risk: JHL

Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors- JHL on Tuesday expressed profound concern over the moves taken by the cities of Espoo and Vantaa to cut a massive number of jobs and said that reduction of employees will put services at risk.

Vantaa started the codetermination talks on Tuesday while Espoo to start the negotiations on September 2 that put a combined 500 jobs at risk, said the JHL in a statement.

Services for residents of the capital region will inevitably suffer if hundreds of city employees in Espoo and Vantaa lose their jobs.

“Libraries, sports facilities and concert halls cannot operate without skilled staff. The residents of Espoo and Vantaa and the employees of these cities are going to be the victims who suffer from these reductions”, said the President of JHL Håkan Ekström.

The City of Vantaa employs about 8,500 people. Most of the personnel in early childhood education and care centres, schools and other educational institutions, 5,500 employees, are excluded from the scope of redundancies and temporary lay-offs.

In practice, the jobs of for example teachers or childcarers in early childhood education and care are not at risk.

In Espoo, too, childcare and teaching staff are excluded from redundancies and lay-offs. The City of Espoo has about 11,000 employees. 8,000 them do work that is not subject to redundancies or lay-offs.

“It is, of course, a good thing that the cities will keep day care centres and schools running. However, no day care centre or educational institution can function if the facilities are not cleaned and maintained. I’m extremely concerned about how these services are going to be produced in the future”, Ekström said.

The City of Espoo delivered strong financial results last year. The financial accounts showed a surplus of over 110 million euros. Nevertheless, the city aims for savings of 10 million euros through the cooperation negotiations.

“Espoo’s cost-cutting policy is completely irresponsible. How is the city going to attract competent employees in the future, if their jobs may disappear any time?” the JHL leader said.

In addition to making redundancies, both Espoo and Vantaa may implement extensive temporary lay-offs. Some employees’ full-time employment may be converted to part-time employment, and terms and conditions of employment relationships may change.

“It’s quite clear that the employees in Espoo and Vantaa will face unreasonable burdens if the cities make such massive redundancies, because the work in the cities will not disappear.”

“We are going to monitor the developments closely and defend our members’ terms and conditions of employment by all necessary means”, Ekström added.