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JHL solidarity work on show at the World Village Festival
JHL (25.05.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) JHL, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors is also working for a decent working life globally. It promotes several projects in other parts of the world with the aim of improving employee rights to organise and negotiate collectively on the terms of employment. An important partner in this work is the Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland SASK. The latter is the solidarity and development cooperation organisation of several Finnish trade unions which promotes decent work and core labour standards around the world. The ongoing projects of JHL and SASK can be seen first hand at the World Village Festival in Helsinki May 26-27.
Enterprises Federation on a crusade against the union unemployment funds
Helsinki (22.05.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) The plans of the Federation of Finnish Enterprises to get their employees to leave the union unemployment funds has been widely criticised. The trade unions are flabbergasted, too. Mikael Pentikäinen, the CEO of the Federation of Finnish Enterprises announced in May that the federation is encouraging their member companies to pay unemployment fund fees for those employees who belong to the private YTK fund instead of the union funds. Pentikäinen wrote with surprising honesty that the very aim of the action is to "create more pressure to reform the labour markets". According to him the entrepreneurs are running out of patience with how "the trade union movement puts a brake on necessary labour market reform and prevents enterprises and their employees from making local agreements concerning terms of employment". Unemployment funds are traditionally set up and administered by the trade unions and work in co-operation with the unions. YTK fund is an exception to this rule, a private fund without connection to the trade unions.
Lue lisää: Enterprises Federation on a crusade against the...
New laws on zero-hours contracts do little to help
Helsinki (18.05.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) From the beginning of June zero-hours contracts will become a legal part of Finnish working life. The new legislation will stipulate some limits, but does little to tackle the actual problem. The trade union movement has been struggling for a long time against zero-hours contracts. These set the weekly working hours from zero to 40, also giving the employer the possibility to hire staff with no guarantee of work. This situation affects young people mostly: according to Statistics Finland nearly one-half of those working zero-hours contracts were aged under 25, and 65 per cent were under 30 in the year 2014. A majority of those with zero-hours contracts, 57 per cent in all were women. According to Statistics Finland estimates 83,000 Finns were working zero-hours contracts in 2014. This accounts for four per cent of the total workforce.
Lue lisää: New laws on zero-hours contracts do little to help
Ammattiliitot ahtaalla Yhdysvalloissa
Tekijä (16.05.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) Työntekijöiden oikeudet ja edut Yhdysvalloissa kuuluvat teollisuusmaiden heikoimpiin. Yksi syy on selvä: vain 10,7 prosenttia työntekijöistä kuuluu ammattiliittoon. Yhdysvallat on maailman ainoa teollisuusmaa, jossa ei ole lakisääteistä palkallista vanhempain- tai vuosilomaa. Samaan nollakerhoon kuuluu vain joitakin Tyynenmeren saarivaltioita kuten Tonga ja Nauru. Osa yrityksistä myöntää joitakin etuja. Silti teollisuuden työntekijöistä vain yhdellä kymmenestä on oikeus palkalliseen perhevapaaseen.
Alipalkkaus kuriin
Tekijä (16.05.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) Puu- ja painotyöntekijöitä Ruotsissa järjestävän GS-liiton puheenjohtaja Per-Olof Sjöö tukee maan hallituksen esitystä työvoiman maahanmuuton uudesta sääntelystä. Esitys muun muassa edellyttää työntekijöitä EU:n ulkopuolelta tuovien yritysten tarkempaa etukäteiskontrollia sekä työtarjouksen muuttamista juridisesti sitovaksi.
Liitto menestyy vaaleissa
Tekijä (16.05.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) Kemian, kaivos- ja energiateollisuuden työntekijöitä järjestävä IG BCE -liitto menestyy Saksan yritysneuvostojen vaalissa. Ne ovat työntekijöiden vaaleilla valitsemia elimiä, joilla on sananvaltaa monissa työntekoon liittyvissä asioissa. IG BCE toimii 3 400 yrityksessä ja 40 prosenttia niistä on jo valinnut yritysneuvostot tällä vaalikierroksella. Liiton ehdokkaat ovat keränneet 82 prosenttia äänistä. Suurin yritys on BASF, jossa liitto sai 47 kaikkiaan 55 yritysneuvoston paikasta.
Majority of unemployed job-seekers see their benefits cut due to the new legislation
Helsinki (30.04.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) The new statistics show that the fears surrounding the new amended employment security legislation have unfortunately come true. More than half of those receiving unemployment benefit from the SAK unions' funds have seen their benefits cut. The Finnish Government last year introduced legislation stipulating that an unemployed job-seeker may forfeit 4.65 percent of his or her benefit if they are deemed to be less than active in their search for employment. This means that the job-seeker must either find employment for 18 hours in a three month period, receive entrepreneurial income of at least 241 euro or participate in a five day training course or for other services offered by the employment offices. The new law has now been in effect for three months and the unemployment funds are able to draw their first conclusions.
New stipulations for employment security not having a positive impact on employment
JHL (19.04.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) The recent changes in unemployment security cut benefits but do not help in finding a job, says Teija Asara-Laaksonen, the Chief Executive Officer of JHL. From the beginning of this year unemployed job seekers are seeing their benefits cut by 4.65 per cent in each three month period unless they succeed in finding employment temporarily, receive some entrepreneurial income or participate in training offered by the employment offices. The Finnish Government pushed the cuts through claiming they will activate job seekers and improve employment prospects. The trade union movement vehemently opposed the proposed measures, arguing that in real terms all this amounted to was simply a cut in benefits which does little to help in finding a new job. Now JHL, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors can show some figures to assess what has actually happened as a result.
The Finnish Government wants to make fixed-term employment and dismissals easier
Helsinki (18.04.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) The trade unions have been vocal in their criticism of the Government decision to weaken employment security for those under 30 years of age or those working in companies with less than 20 employees. On 11 April, the Government agreed the General Government Fiscal Plan for 2019–2022. It will amend the Employment Contracts Act by allowing an employer to make, without restrictions, fixed-term employment contracts with anyone under 30 years of age who has been an unemployed job seeker for at least three months. The existing legislation demands a justifiable reason for a fixed-term employment contract.
Lue lisää: The Finnish Government wants to make fixed-term...
Katkeraa viiniä Etelä-Afrikasta
Tekijä (18.04.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) Yle esitti viime vuodenvaihteessa tanskalaisen dokumentin Viinin katkera maku. Se kertoi Etelä-Afrikan viinitilojen työntekijöiden kohtaamista arkisesta todellisuudesta. Erityisesti selvittelyn kohteena oli Leeuwenkuilin viinitila, jonka viinejä myydään paljon kaikissa pohjoismaissa, Suomessakin. Tiloilla käytettiin huolettomasti ympäristyömyrkkyjä, työntekijöiden palkkoja poljettiin, ylityökorvauksia ei maksettu eikä järjestäytymistä sallittu. Palkan maksaminen alkoholina kiellettiin Etelä-Afrikassa vuonna 1960. Dokumentissa haastateltu Kapkaupungin yliopiston kansantaloustieteen professori Leslie London sanoo, että sitä tapahtuu yhä. Tapa vain on eri: viininviljelijä myy alkoholiriippuvaiselle työntekijälle alkoholia alennuksella velaksi.
Olen työskennellyt vapaana toimittajana vuodesta 1986. Työelämä- ja ay-aiheiden lisäksi kirjoitan laajasti yhteiskunnasta, sosiaali- ja terveysalasta, kulttuuripolitiikasta sekä -taloudesta, taiteesta ja tekijänoikeusasioista.