The 24-hour strike will begin on May 7th at 00:01 and end on May 7 at 23:59 if no agreement is reached on the employment conditions and salary increases for employees of Finland’s thirteen universities before then.

At Tampere University, the strike will cover all work tasks under the general collective agreement for universities.

Excluded from the strike are essential IT support and core IT services, essential care for samples and animals, and tasks whose omission would pose a danger to human life or health or significant danger to property.

No agreement on salary increases or teaching hour caps to ensure the well-being of teaching and research staff

“Salary increases for university staff are still unresolved, as the employer’s offer for general increases is significantly below the general trend,” the organisations state.

In addition to salary increases, the dispute concerns the teaching hour caps stated in the collective agreement, which protects those engaged in teaching and research work at universities from excessive workloads.

The organisations representing employees want to maintain the caps to ensure the quality of teaching and research in Finnish universities in the future.

A strike threat in the university sector is rare. The last time university staff went on strike was seven years ago at the University of Helsinki.