Dear Rector Sari Lindblom, Head of Administration Esa Hämäläinen, and Director of Human Resources Tiia Tuomi,
The Helsinki University Association of Researchers and Teachers (HUART), the University of Helsinki’s lecturers’ association (HYL) and University Helsinki Staff Association (HYHY), which together represent the majority of university staff, jointly express our deep concern and opposition to the planned measures to develop the salary system for professors via a separate local agreement.
The local agreement, should it be implemented, would establish a two-tiered system for employees of the university: professors and non-professors. Such a two-tiered system naturally gives rise to inequalities in the ways salaries are budgeted, negotiated, and developed and further exacerbates existing inequalities between staff members.
We support the development of salaries for university employees. The Collective Agreement already gives the university the power to increase salaries and reward high performing staff through the use of the salary’s job demand level bonus and personal performance component. However, this has not been well implemented at the University of Helsinki in any of the staff categories. Even so, the solution is not to build a new system for a small group of university staff. A more suitable approach would be to develop and properly implement the salary system as a whole via the Sivista working group established for this purpose. This additional local agreement is created to solve a problem that does not exist.
At a time when the University Services is undergoing reorganization and a target of 15% reduced staffing, when rental work force is being used to undertake core work of the university, and when the position and prospects of early career researchers are so poor that international assessors highlighted the need to “develop a unified career structure and consider how to support better the career development of early-career researchers and those on short-term contracts” in the recent Research Assessment of the University of Helsinki, the university’s focus on solely developing professors’ salaries is concerning.
Together as a university community, we face challenges posed by cuts to higher education and negative impacts from changes in the university funding model. When faced with these, it comes down to a question of priorities. Is developing a separate salary system for the highest paid and most secure staff at the University really the priority right now?
The university has stated in its strategy that its goal is to be the best place to study and work by 2030. The way the negotiations have been conducted does not reflect the university’s commitment to high quality at the core of its organizational culture nor its promise to critically examine university operating structures that can lead to low staff wellbeing.
Finally, we would like to raise our objection to the way in which the preparation of this local agreement was undertaken. The process was not open nor transparent and did not respect the principles of good cooperation agreed between the university and union representatives. Undertaking negotiations in this manner undermines the trust and basis for future collaboration between the University leadership and unions. As unions, we are committed to future cooperation with the university, provided that it is based on transparency, openness, and the principles of good cooperation.
We urge the university Leadership to abandon the preparation of this local agreement and focus instead on the responsible development of salaries across staff categories.
Kind regards,
Helsinki University Association of Researchers and Teachers (HUART)
University of Helsinki’s lecturers’ association (HYL)
University Helsinki Staff Association (HYHY)
28.5.2026