In its decision, the Labour Court stated that the notices of strikes concerning universities of applied sciences issued by OAJ in March were premature, as YTN had not yet concluded its negotiations with FEE. The decision of the Labour Court was not unanimous; it was reached by vote.

The action did not concern the legality of any future strikes.

"We consider it very peculiar that the Labour Court considers OAJ and YTN to make up one united contracting party. Such an interpretation leads to a strange situation, as the organisations have separate administrations and their own decision-making bodies. OAJ negotiates the employment terms of teaching staff and YTN of support service personnel. Both administrations decide independently on the approval or rejection of the negotiation results and any conciliation proposals. We also organise strikes independently. Each contracting party must also be able to independently conclude negotiations," says OAJ’s President Katarina Murto. 

OAJ was fined EUR 10,000. However, the Labour Court’s ruling states that there have been uncertainties of interpretation with regard to the agreement, which had a lowering effect on the amount of the fine.

OAJ considered it so important to defend the interests of its members in the collective agreement negotiations that it wanted to issue a notice of industrial action immediately after the conclusion of the negotiations as announced by OAJ, despite the possibility of a difference of interpretation.

"This is a major issue that comes down to principle, so we took a deliberate risk to defend the interests of our members. When FEE was purposely completely unwilling to negotiate and was only playing for time, there was no reason to continue the negotiations. The decision of the Labour Court means that the position of the contracting parties must be clarified in order to reach a new agreement. OAJ is an independent contracting party," says Murto.

The decision also raises questions about the realisation of the right to strike.

"The notices of strike were issued after OAJ had concluded negotiations. The time of any strikes extended to the period after the end of the agreement period and the obligation to maintain industrial peace. This certainly presents the right to strike and its restriction in a new light," says Negotiations Director Petri Lindroos.

Due to the decision of the Labour Court, we decided to cancel tomorrow’s strike at Turku University of Applied Sciences (14 April). The remaining notices of strike issued to universities of applied sciences have been issued after the expiration of the industrial peace obligation, which means that the decision will not affect future strikes. Strikes taking place this week are the strikes at Jamk University of Applied Sciences (15 April) and Savonia (16 April), unless an agreement is reached before these dates.