Finnish nurses threaten to resign over pay

Finland's healthcare system risks meltdown at midnight tonight, with almost 12,000 nurses threatening to resign en masse unless their demands for higher wages are met.

The government has contacted Sweden and Germany about taking critical cases if Finnish hospitals do grind to a halt, and as a precaution, two pregnant women were transferred to Stockholm at the weekend.

The Finnish parliament, turning increasingly desperate as the walkout loomed, also passed an emergency bill essentially declaring the nurses' forthcoming resignation letters null and void and leaving them liable to a fine if they decide to follow through on their threat and stop working. Cartoons in the Finnish press depicted bowler-hatted bureaucrats dragging nurses by their ponytails back to hospital wards.

The Union of Health and Social Care Professionals, or Tehy, is demanding a 24 per cent pay increase over the next 28 months, while the local authorities are offering only 12.7 per cent. In 2006, the average pay for Tehy members was €2,386 (£1,700) a month. That was less than the average Finnish full-time worker's monthly salary the previous year of €2,555.

Union leaders, local councillors and health department officials were locked in negotiations all weekend, but there was little sign of a compromise being reached.

"The government is not confident at all of reaching a deal," said Tom Silfvast, senior medical officer at Finland's Health Ministry.

In some hospital districts as many as 70 per cent of critical care nurses may quit, including those in accident and emergency departments, maternity units, operating theatres, cancer wards and intensive care units.

"Tuesday should be managed in some way or other but from then on, day by day, the situation will get worse," Mr Silfvast said.

Nurses say they have no choice but to take such drastic action after previous strikes had been ignored. The government is permitted by law to force strikers back to work, and this, say the nurses, undermines their negotiating power.

"Of course we are worried about patients but we have had to take dramatic action. This crisis has been evolving over a long period of time, 10 years without any hint of progress," said Katri Lindqvist, a Tehy spokeswoman. "If no deal can be reached, we will go ahead with our mass resignation."

Hundreds of nurses took to the streets of Helsinki last week to protest and even Finland's Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen found himself caught up in the crisis. He was admitted to hospital on Friday after suffering back pain, and was later treated for kidney stones before being released on Saturday. A few days later and he could have been one of the first victims of a paralysed healthcare system.

Some nurses say that ahead of last year's election the ruling party promised to raise salaries but is now reneging on its pledges. "I have been a nurse for 30 years and I have been waiting for a better salary almost as long," said Paula Pistokoski, who works at Helsinki's University Hospital.

"I am going to resign, not just for myself, but for the future of the profession," she added. "Nursing is a skilled job and it should be reflected in the salary, otherwise the stream of young people coming into the profession will dry up."