The negotiating sides met Friday with Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen and Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen. Katainen declared that the government had been closely involved in the ongoing negotiations and would continue to be so.
Information previously obtained by YLE indicated that the government would be prepared to reduce income taxes by 0.4 percentage points. Government is now reportedly prepared to offer an even larger corporate tax reduction than it promised in its economic programme when it took office. A one-percentage point reduction in corporate taxes would cost government around 200 million euros in lost tax revenue.
The government is wooing the labour unions to ink an agreement with the offer of an extra employee benefit to be paid during furloughs or temporary layoffs. Government would have to set aside from 120 to 160 million euros to cover the cost of the benefit.
Both sides say that discussions to hammer out the final details of an agreement could continue. And the labour representatives would like to see higher wage levels, if talks go on.
Prime Minister Katainen has conceded that finding a solution won’t be easy. “It’s a very difficult situation, and it’s impossible to predict at this stage what the outcome will be. We will meet on Monday and see whether there are grounds to begin formal discussions,” he said.
There are no plans for the negotiating parties to meet over the weekend, but they are due to inform the government by Monday, whether or not they will continue to seek agreement on a national wage settlement.
