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🇫🇮 Finland /Economy & Trade

HUS tells radiographer her pay is too high and sends her a bill

From Helsingin Sanomat · () Finnish

Translated from Finnish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Ongoing story
  • HUS plans to reduce radiographer Riitta Jokinen's basic salary by about 190 euros a month and reclaim approximately 1,000 euros it says she was overpaid.
  • The changes form part of a disputed review of job classifications affecting 270 employees, with some salaries rising and others falling.
  • Jokinen says the decision undermines her work, while HUS says the current changes remain proposals pending a meeting next week.

Riitta Jokinen learned during an unexpected Teams call that her employer, Finland's HUS hospital district, believed she had spent years in a salary grade that was too high. Her basic pay would fall by about 190 euros a month, and HUS also planned to recover roughly 1,000 euros in wages it considered excessive.

The radiographer said the news came as a complete surprise and left her disappointed and sad. "It definitely has a major impact on work motivation and well-being," she said.

HUS announced on Thursday that it planned changes to the pay of 270 employees. Some salaries would rise and others would fall, with monthly adjustments ranging from a few euros to about 200 euros. HUS employment relations director Laura Lindholm told Helsingin Sanomat by email that the changes were still proposals, with a meeting scheduled for the following week.

It definitely has a major impact on work motivation and well-being.

· Riitta JokinenShe described the personal effect of the proposed pay cut.

The dispute stems from a contentious reform of HUS's pay system, which reassesses the demands of different duties and assigns employees to salary groups. Last year, HUS moved about 600 employees into lower groups. The trade union Tehy has taken the dispute involving more than 500 nurses to the Labour Court.

HUS says Jokinen's lower salary reflects the view that work at a health center is not demanding enough. She works as a primary-care radiographer at the Järvenpää social and health center, which opens on weekends and public holidays. On those days, she says, a single radiographer runs the imaging service, making the job independent and responsible. The pay cut would also reduce supplements calculated from her basic salary.

Jokinen has worked in the field for 35 years and expects to retire in about 18 months, so she does not plan to change jobs. Still, she says the decision feels like a dismissal of her contribution, even though patients regularly thank her for the work.

We did not know about these earlier assessments, and their grounds were not explained to us.

· Riitta JokinenShe criticized HUS for seeking repayment over a salary decision made by the employer.
About this summary

Originally published by Helsingin Sanomat in Finnish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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