Possible changes apply to 13 people. The staff considers the situation unreasonable.
The handover is planned to take place by the end of the year. OUTI LAKE
Yle is planning to give up its staging operations with a store sale. According to the press release, Yle would buy the staging services from an external operator in the future.
Yle’s board made a decision to present the matter at its board meeting on Monday, March 16.
Handover means that the company or part of its operations is transferred to another employer. Consequently, the employees’ employer also changes.
According to the release, Yle has staging operations in Tampere and Helsinki. The planned transfer of business concerns 13 people as well as equipment, tools, premises and machines.
The release states that the new partner will be selected through an open competition. The competition starts in March-April. The handover is planned to be carried out by the end of 2026.
Yle’s program workers YOT published a statement on the Yle board’s decision. YOT says in the release that the situation is unreasonable for the staff. According to YOT, the working conditions of the employees are at risk.
– Outsourcing work often means weaker working conditions at the same time. Nothing guarantees that production companies will not in the future make productions procured from outside Yle abroad for cost-saving reasons, YOT says in the press release.
– YOT demands Yleisradio to make sure that stage studio employees who are subject to the transfer of business will be properly consulted in the change and that their new employer will treat the employees fairly. At the same time, YOT requires that the external purchases increased at the request of the parliamentary working group bring work specifically to Finland, not abroad, YOT comments.
Director of Yle’s Technology, Production and Development unit Janne Yli-Äyhö says in the release that media production has changed over the years. According to Yli-Äyhö, productions have become lighter and in the future more and more things will be done digitally.
– Yle’s self-produced drama has also decreased substantially. These changes are strongly reflected in Yle’s stage operation. We make fewer and fewer sets, and the trend continues, Yli-Äyhö comments.
Yli-Äyhö wants staging services to continue to be of high quality and efficient.
– When the amount of work decreases, we will not be able to develop and renew operations alone in an economically sustainable way. At the same time, we have an obligation set by the parliamentary Yle working group to increase purchases from outside, director Yli-Äyhö says in the press release.
The Yle working group consisting of members of parliament decided earlier that Yleisradio will buy more and more domestic programs and services from outside the house in the future. The goal of the working group is to increase purchases by 15–20 percent by 2030.
According to the release, this means an annual increase of approximately 10–14 million to the current level.
YOT also commented on the Yle working group’s surgical decisions in its own statement.
– This may have sounded like an easy solution that would increase domestic jobs in the creative sector. In reality, however, it is a pure zero-sum game: Yle reduces its own staff in order to buy the same work from outside in the future. Jobs in the field are not increasing, YOT’s board comments.
– At Yles, work is done every day for democracy and Finnish culture. It would be right and fair that Yle’s employees would finally have peace of mind in this extremely important job for society, says the YOT board.