News

OAJ and its negotiation organisation JUKO are involved in the extensive municipal sector strike that will initially concern the cities of Jyväskylä and Rovaniemi. The union employees of JUKO will strike on 23–24 March 2022, unless a solution to the agreement is found or the strike is postponed before these dates.  The strike would concern over 2,200 OAJ members in Jyväskylä and Rovaniemi. 

An extensive ban on overtime and shift change will become effective in the municipal sector and applies also to the members of OAJ. The ban on overtime and shift changes was announced by the negotiating organisations JUKO and JAU.

The OAJ suspends its cooperation with ESEUR for the time being and condemns Russia's actions in Ukraine.

An outcome was reached in the collective agreement negotiations for state civil servants and employees under contract yesterday. The achieved solution applies to 600 members of the OAJ.

In her work, early childhood education teacher Maria Patteri sees the great impact that skilled teachers have on children’s growth and learning. However, the shortage of teachers is severe, and Maria believes the situation will only ease once questions related to working conditions and pay have been solved.

Class teacher Jussi Häikiö has worked in the field of education for the past 20+ years and recognises that, year after year, teaching has become more demanding. Jussi calls for more appreciation for teachers' work in everyday life, such as smaller group sizes and a salary level that corresponds to the demanding nature of the work.

Johanna Sopanen trains future healthcare professionals. For her, students and supporting their professional growth are the number one priority of work. The work takes its toll, however, and the amount of administrative work, for example, seems to increase year by year. Without vocational teachers, we would not have future professionals, which is why the sector’s attractiveness must be safeguarded by competitive salary levels and more funding for education.

Mika Mattila, who works as a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Tampere, enjoys teaching, but is concerned about the well-being of colleagues and the workload that grows year after year. According to him, there is plenty of room for improvement in the ways and conditions of work. Excellence in the labour market can only be achieved if universities provide attractive jobs for teachers.

The Russian military action in Ukraine is unacceptable. OAJ supports Ukraine together with the international community of teachers' organizations and hopes for rapid peace.

According to a recent study by Taloustutkimus, Finns consider teachers to be one of the most important occupational groups for the country's future. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many have come to realise the difficulty and value of the work of teachers in a deeper way, as a noticeably larger number of people now rated the importance of the teaching profession a full ten out of ten. The OAJ also wants that appreciation to be reflected on the teachers’ pay and working conditions in order for the teaching profession to remain an attractive career option.

OAJ’s demand that the salary level of employees in the education sector must be corrected using a salary programme is supported by a new survey on salaries conducted by Taloustutkimus.

The Finnish Government's biggest school policy reform is the extension of compulsory education to everyone under 18 years of age. At the same time, upper secondary edu-cation was made free of charge.

In Finland, the COVID-19 epidemic has tightened its grip again during the autumn, although the proportion of people in the country who have been vaccinated twice is over 80%. The situation will be difficult for children and young people until they, too, are vaccinated.

The OAJ's long-term goal of establishing a national teacher register has now progressed closer to implementation. The OAJ has been demanding clarification on the matter for a long time, and now the report is finally due to be completed by the end of the year.

The shortage of teachers has become more severe in Finland especially in relation to early childhood education. The ability of teachers to cope at work has also been discussed extensively in public.