Helsinki (05.07.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) The threat of redundancy is a growing concern for Finns. A rise in the rate of redundancies was already discernible at the beginning of the current economic crisis in 2009, says the Trade Union Confederation SAK on the basis on their statistics of mandatory co-operation negotiations in companies.
The Act on Co-operation within Undertakings stipulates that if company has more than 20 employees, the employer is not permitted to issue any redundancy notices without first organising co-operation negotiations with the employees. The purpose of these mandatory negotiations is to try to find alternative solutions to redundancies.
This year co-operation negotiations with regard to possible cuts in personnel have affected about 48,600 employees, which is 31,000 more than two years ago.
However, the number of actual redundancies has diminished somewhat from last year. The total number of redundancies now is more or less the same as in 2010 and 2011.
The director of employment and sustainable growth at SAK, Matti Tukiainen, sees the situation as serious and does not believe there will be any change for the better in the near future. "According my understanding two major factors are intensifying the pressure to cut staff: the cycle of recession due to the Euro crisis and the structural crisis of the paper and ICT-industries."
It seems to be that the percentage of those dismissed after co-operation negotiations in comparison to those having temporary lay-offs is growing every year.
Mobile phone cluster is shrinking
The biggest redundancies in 2013 have so far been at the Japanese based mobile phone technology developer Renesas Mobile (808), the mobile phone company Nokia (609), the phone operator TeliaSonera (312), the airline carrier Finnair (290) and the post services company Itella (276).
The companies that have had most employees involved in co-operation negotiations are the retail company Stockmann (5,000), the Technical Research Centre of Finland (2,800), TeliaSonera (2,080), the ship builder STX (2,000) and the retail chain SOK (1,900). One part of these negotiations is still on going and in some cases the outcome has been temporary lay-offs.
The percentage of redundancies in stock market listed companies is 42 per cent. This remains at the same level as in previous years.
Matti Tukiainen is appealing to companies to have more patience and the ability to see a bit further down the line. "There should be other means than redundancies. When the recession is over, there may be a lack of skilled labour. We could also expect some sense of moral responsibility from companies as they just received an almost one billion Euro gift in the form of the lower company tax."
Tukiainen says that state should jump-start the economy by taking recovery measures like repairing schools and building houses in cities and towns that are growing. He also thinks that given the situation we are in the goal to cut the budget deficit could be delayed.
"We also need a broad general incomes policy settlement to guarantee the competitiveness of export and domestic purchasing power in order not to freeze domestic consumption."