1. To improve the status of our members’ areas of expertise

We promote equality with the aim of ensuring that everyone has equal opportunities in their studies and at various phases of their career.

We promote the status and interests of employees, the self-employed, those combining different forms of employment, the unemployed, those on various kinds of leave and our student members in various sectors of society and in our service operations. We promote the resolution of our members’ branch-specific issues through agreements and legislation.

We promote a good work–life balance by promoting the flexibility of working and working hours through arrangements such as working time accounts and part-time work arrangements, as well as making remote work more acceptable in various fields. We work to make the division of the costs of parenthood more equal between men’s and women’s employers.

In activities related to negotiations and agreements, we promote the selection of employees’ representatives and support their ability to carry out their duties. We enhance the counselling and support of members in local and individual-level agreement negotiations.

We work to improve the working life knowledge of those working in fields without collective agreements and improve their position in employment negotiations.

We promote our members’ opportunities to develop their competence at the various stages of their careers as well as the systems and forms of support aimed at developing competence.

We bring the importance of our members’ areas of expertise for social change to the attention of citizens and decision-makers.

2. To increase the salaries of our members

We promote salaries that correspond to the demandingness of work and are fair and equal through collective agreements, when developing and applying salary systems, in legislation, as well as through salary statistics, salary recommendations and counselling, by promoting the adoption of systems for the objective assessment of the demandingness of work as well as by supporting employees’ representatives and individual members in dealing with workplace-level salary issues.

We advocate for paid internships for students with the aim of ensuring equal access to higher education internship grants for all students. We monitor employers’ remuneration practices for internships in various fields. We promote the preparedness for working life of those in the beginning of their careers by providing information and guidance on salaries and the terms and conditions of employment.

3. To promote well-being at work

We promote our members’ well-being and work–life balance. We exert influence to accomplish this objective through legislation, collective agreements, guidance for members and through supporting the work of occupational safety and health officers. We promote the functionality of job alternation leave and adult education allowance systems as well as the availability of rehabilitation. We develop services for members by providing support for coping at work and for maintaining members’ personal ability to work.

4. To develop the collective agreements of our members and create new agreements for branches lacking them

We develop the contents of existing collective agreements and create new agreements for branches lacking them in cooperation with our members.

5. To ensure the terms and conditions of temporary work and eliminate unfounded fixed-term contracts

We work to ensure that fixed-term contracts are used only for acceptable reasons. We support our members and employees’ representatives in using fixed-term contracts that have acceptable terms and conditions and whose use can be justified.

6. To improve the conditions for entrepreneurship and the position of those combining different forms of employment

We improve the conditions for entrepreneurship and the position of those combining different forms of employment. We promote the combining of salaried employment and entrepreneurship by influencing social security, pension and unemployment security legislation and their practical application. We promote the position of members who combine different forms of employment.