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Helsinki (21.02.2019 - Heikki Jokinen) Debate in the Finnish Parliament on the citizens' initiative to stop the so called activation model took a peculiar turn. At the beginning of the debate on the initiative signed by 140,944 citizen not a single MP from the Government parties turned up.

The activation model is legislation that cuts unemployment benefits should an unemployed job-seeker not meet certain criteria like finding a temporarily job, having entrepreneurial income or participating in training. The legislation is widely viewed as unfair, as it is often not possible to meet the criteria in spite of actively trying to do so.

The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK carried out a survey last year and found that more than half of those receiving unemployment benefit from the SAK unions' funds have seen their benefits cut.

Helsinki (18.02.2019 - Heikki Jokinen) February 18 was the moment at which the average private sector employee earnings of this year surpassed a private company chief executive’s daily pay.

The date is calculated by the Finnish Confederation of Professionals STTK. It tells how many days an average private sector employee must work to reach the same pay as a CEO of a major publicly listed company gets in one day. It took 34 working days.

The new figures are from the year 2017. In 2016, an employee needed one day less to reach a CEO’s daily pay.

Helsinki (08.02.2019 - Heikki Jokinen) A total of 3,362 employees lost their jobs in private companies in Finland in the year 2018. This is practically the same figure as for the previous year, when 3,276 people were made redundant in the private sector. In 2016 the number of redundancies was 10,874.

The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK has been keeping track of the number of redundancies since 2007 and the figures for the year 2017 were lower than ever. And the latest figures show there has been little change in the course of a year.

Major redundancies took place last year at the IT technology company Nokia, 353 redundancies, Venator chemical industries, 253 redundancies, the restaurant chain Restamax, 200 redundancies, and wholesaler Tuko Logistics, 200 redundancies.

Helsinki (30.01.2019 - Heikki Jokinen)  Gross neglect is thought to be the reason for one death in privatised elderly care and this has created a major debate in Finland. However, trade unions have been warning about these problems for a long time.

In the eye of the storm right now is Esperi Care, a private company that is taking care of some 8 000 elderly people and others in need of special care. It had a turnover of 231 million euro. The main owner of Esperi is the Intermediate Capital Group, an asset manager company based in Britain.

Valvira, the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health, announced on 25 January that it would suspend operations at Esperi's nursing home in the town of Kristiinankaupunki.

Helsinki (25.01.2019 - Heikki Jokinen) Five main Finnish labour market organisations are touring the country together to launch a broad debate on working life issues in advance of the parliamentary elections on April 14. All three trade union confederations will take part, as well as two major employers associations.

The Ääni työlle (which has a double meaning - vote for work or voice for work) tour will visit 11 main Finnish cities prior to the elections. In each city there will be an open event with a theme focusing on relevant issues around the future of work in Finland.

All candidates standing for Parliament have been invited to participate.

Helsinki (07.01.2019 - Heikki Jokinen) Gender equality has become far more prevalent among trade unions in Finland. A quick look at how their boards are composed is evidence enough. In many unions the share of women and men on boards mainly reflects the membership, with few exceptions.

The biggest union in Finland is the Service Union United PAM with 226.383 members at the beginning of 2018. On the Union board in 2019 there are 10 women and 6 men. Males make up 24.18 per cent of PAM’s members.

In the second largest union, the Industrial Union, women account for 24.06 per cent of the 219.066 union members. On the Union board there sit 6 women and 22 men.

JHL, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors is, with its 192,286 members, the third largest union in the country. And on the Board there are 17 women and 8 men. Men make up 30.97 per cent of the Union membership.

Helsinki (20.12.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) Only 30 per cent of the unemployed have been able to meet the new criteria to get uncut unemployment benefit under the amended employment security legislation, according to a survey conducted among 6,000 members of unemployment funds run by the unions belonging to the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK.

The Finnish right-wing Government introduced, at the beginning of 2018, the so called activation model whereby an unemployed job-seeker forfeits 4.65 percent of his or her benefit if they are deemed to be less than active in their search for employment.

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 be available for other services offered by the employment offices.

According to the survey, the main reasons for not meeting the new criteria are lack of work and employment services. Those over 55 years of age or those living in the countryside or in Northern Finland in particular experience major difficulties in finding any kind of job.

Helsinki (07.12.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) Labour costs in Finland were, on average, 34.2 Euro per hour in 2016, according to Statistics Finland in its Labour Cost Survey published in November 2018.

In the private sector the hourly costs for an employer were 34.7 Euro, in the local government sector 31.4 Euro and in the central government sector 40.8 Euro.

The costs varied within these sectors, too. In the private sector manufacturing industries had labour costs of 37.2 Euro per hour but in the service industry the figure was 33.9 Euro.

Helsinki (22.11.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) A trade union movement working party called Itset has published a list of goals to improve the situation of self-employed workers.

Finland will have parliamentary elections in April 2019. Many unions, NGO's and other interest groups are now drafting and publishing their wish-lists which they want to see included in the next Government Programme following the elections.

Itset is a working party composed of all three trade union confederations SAK, STTK and Akava, several of their member unions and the Union of Journalists in Finland.

Trade unions must be able to represent the self-employed in negotiations concerning pay and conditions - this is Itset’s fundamental and most important demand. European competition legislation provides no obstacle, the group believes, as in the case of Germany where the unions are in a position to make such deals on the basis of the Copyright Act.

Helsinki (11.11.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) The trade unions are ready to accept the tripartite proposal for an amendment to the Employment Contracts Act concerning the disputed dismissal paragraph. In practise the amendment will not change anything. Industrial action is over now, too.

The long struggle began when the right-wing Government tried to ease individual dismissal in companies with less than 20 employees. The unions were adamant that they would not accept any weakening of employment security.

Once strong resistance from the unions became clear the Government tried to salvage their proposal by setting the limit to 10 employees, but for the unions it was a question of principle, not a question of numbers. Government intransigence and their unwillingness to negotiate led to industrial action been taken by several unions in September and October.