Helsinki (26.06.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) Trade unions and employers' federations have signed an agreement with Fennovoima and Rusatom Overseas companies regarding common rules for the future construction work on a nuclear power plant in Pyhäjoki.
The purpose here is to agree in advance on procedures that should be followed at the construction site and to guarantee that everything runs in accord with Finnish legislation and existing collective agreements and practices.
The construction site agreement covers among other things; procedures as to information exchange and problem solving, the role of trade union representatives on site, and ways to prevent and combat the black economy in practice.
The new nuclear power plant will be a very international working place for thousands of workers. The partners behind the project are the Finnish company Fennovoima and the Russian company Rusatom Overseas. The plant is expected to deliver electricity in 2024.
"The objective of the site agreement is to settle the policies of cooperation and operating principles in advance, before actual construction work even begins", says Fennovoima CEO Juha Nurmi.
Four unions signed up
The trade unions who have signed the agreement are The Electrical Workers' Union, The Metalworkers' Union, Trade Union Pro and The Finnish Construction Trade Union.
"The trade union movement is sometimes accused of being too sluggish and slow in its movements. Now the trade unions are on the move even before construction work has got underway” says Tero Heiniluoma, director of collective bargaining at the Electrical Workers' Union.
The agreement seeks to implement the Finnish Parliament's Employment and Equality Committee's statement in 2012. The committee saw it as vitally important that questions and problems concerning this very project should be negotiated and agreed on in advance with the labour market organisations.
Fennovoima and Rusatom Overseas have also agreed to establish a construction site register to efficiently regulate and manage information on subcontractors and their employees.
Another nuclear power plant is still under construction in Olkiluoto. It has become infamous for lax controls in respect of labour conditions, wage dumping, a large number of unregistered foreign workers and tax avoidance.
Read more about Olkiluoto:
Six unions demand TVO action against illegalities at nuclear power plant construction site (11.06.2012)
Weak control of foreign labour and companies cause major tax losses (26.04.2012)