Co-operation negotiations over at the Finnish Meteorological Institute
The FMI is centralising aviation weather services to Helsinki, Kuopio and Rovaniemi. As a result of the change, the aviation weather services in Tampere-Pirkkala will be shut down by the end of 2015, but observations will still continue in Tampere-Pirkkala. At the same time, structural changes will be implemented to weather services in Helsinki.In addition, manual measurements and observations as well as the number of support and research personnel will be reduced in Helsinki and FMI's regional offices.As a result of these changes, the employment relationship of 25 persons will end. In addition, retirements in 2015 – 2016 will add up to savings of approximately 1.75 million euros. Rental costs of regional offices will also decrease. With these measures the savings goal can be reached.
– The Finnish Meteorological Institute is globally one of the most successful institutes in its sector. The success is based on solid expertise, high-quality research and efficiently produced services that meet customers' needs. It is very unfortunate that we have to let some of our personnel go in order to achieve our significant savings targets, Director General Petteri Taalas says. – Our decisions are based on changes in the operating environment as well as efficiency opportunities offered by automation and digitalisation. Our goal is to ensure that we can meet our customers' needs in the future, and enhance productivity and cost efficiency.
The objective of the co-operation negotiations, which began in March, was to find the means to achieve a savings goal of 4.6 million euros. At the beginning of negotiations, it was estimated that the need to cut personnel was at most 85 persons by 2016. The savings needs are due to funding cuts imposed on the FMI as well as budget cuts brought on by the State's overall economic situation and the reform of research institution funding.
Further information:
Petteri Taalas, tel. 029 539 2200Marko Viljanen, tel. 029 539 2300