Gofore, the company’s shop stewards, The Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff YTN and the Association of IT sector Employees have agreed to apply changes according to the renewed law on family leave onto Gofore’s collective agreement, effective on 1 January 2023. Employees of Devecto that Gofore acquired in 2022 are included in the agreement. Other key agreement changes are the changes to clauses that concern family leave, by which Gofore supports an equal parenthood that considers diverse family forms. Also, an employee’s right to a paid leave due to a family member’s sudden illness is expanded to entail adult children as well as an employee’s parents. Gofore’s growth and profitability based salary settlement that was already in place in the 2022 agreement remains unchanged. The agreement applies to over 1,000 Goforeans in Finland.
The collective agreement supports the strategy that Gofore recently updated for 2023–2024, one of the four main themes of which is working life of the future. Gofore published its first company-specific collective agreement in the beginning of 2022 as one of the first in its industry. Several of the practices had already been agreed on locally before then.
”Gofore wants to be the forerunner of building the working life of the future. The diversity of employment relationships increases continuously, along with employee expectations. Our own collective agreement is an important platform for us to agree on these things together. The agreement’s meaning is even bigger to the company now that it concerns over a thousand people. I’m also very glad that we will continue with our salary settlement that’s based on succeeding together and sharing the success”, says Gofore’s CEO Mikael Nylund.
Gofore’s salary raises have been four percent during the first three quarters of 2022, which on average is a very good level. General raises are calculated quarterly based on the company’s profitability.
”Our salary settlement remains unchanged, which I think is fair. Our employees took part in updating the collective agreement, particularly in the changes concerning the family leave. We paid attention to equality and the diversity of families. The negotiations went again very smoothly. At Gofore, the opinions of the staff are being heard, valued and understood”, says Chief Shop Steward Staffan Österholm.
Key changes to Gofore’s updated collective agreement on 1 January 2023
See the entire agreement at https://gofore.com/en/gofores-collective-agreement/
More people within the agreement
- The collective agreement now also concerns Devecto Oy’s employees. Devecto joined Gofore through an acquisition in January 2022.
Family leave and diverse families:
- New family leave legislation was put into effect in Finland in the fall of 2022, due to which Gofore made improvements on related collective agreement clauses, to promote and further develop equal parenthood and support diverse family forms.
- From now on, the birthing parent is paid for 40 working days of pregnancy leave. In addition, a birthing as well as a non-birthing parent is paid for 36 working days i.e. some six weeks of parental leave. Hence, a non-birthing parent’s right for paid leave is doubled from some three weeks (collective agreement 2022) to some six weeks.
- Another person who participates in childcare and is granted Kela’s (Finnish Social Insurance Institution) parental allowance is also entitled to paid parental leave of some six weeks.
- Parental leave days can be donated to the other parent, as well as to one’s own or the other parent’s spouse or child’s other caretaker.
No change in the salary settlement
- Salary settlement continues to be based on Gofore’s growth and profitability. General raises are calculated quarterly based on the company’s adjusted EBITA.
- From now on, general raises will be effective on the last month of the month following the accrual quarter. E.g. the potential raise accrued in January-March will be effective in June.
- There will be one change in the payment schedule of the raises in the spring of 2023, when on 1 April, an extra 0.37% raise has been agreed on to compensate for the two-month transition period.
Paid leave due to a sudden and compelling reason
- Previously, an employee has had the right to a two-day leave in the occasion of a sudden illness or accident of one’s parent. From the beginning of 2023, this clause will be expanded to also apply to an employee’s right to a paid leave in the case of a sudden illness or an accident of an adult child. In Finland, everyone is entitled to a maximum of four days’ paid leave in the case of an illness of a child under the age of ten.