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Helsinki (29.10.2018 – Heikki Jokinen) The trade unions have interrupted their ongoing acts of industrial action to negotiate with the Finnish Government on their new proposal for labour market legislation.

The conflict between the right-wing Government and trade union movement had escalated steadily this autumn. The Unions have insisted all along that they do not accept the Government plan to ease individual dismissals in small companies.

In spite of this PM Sipilä was determined to press ahead with the legislation and showed extremely limited willingness to negotiate with the labour market organisations. This led to a growing number of incidents of industrial action by way of protest against the planned legislation, first with overtime and shift swap bans and then in October short strikes in several sectors.

Now the Government has backed off and proposed a set of measures to the trade unions on which to negotiate. The unions have responded by interrupting the ongoing and planned industrial action measures and said they are ready to negotiate.

Helsinki (16.10.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) PM Sipilä wants to undermine trade union movement resistance to the planned law allowing for easy dismissal in small companies by calling for a confidence vote in Parliament.

Parliament will debate the prime ministerial communique on Tuesday 16 October and hold a vote of confidence in the Government the following day. As PM Sipilä leads a majority Government, he is sure to win the vote.

Some observers view this highly unusual stratagem to avoid real negotiations with the trade unions as mere political play-acting. PM Sipilä explained the reason for his action by saying that after the confidence vote the unions would be protesting against a democratically elected Parliament, not the Government.

However, the bill is still under preparation and Parliament will not know what exactly is actually in it when voting on Wednesday. PM Sipilä furnished Parliament with a one page declaration saying that the objective of making dismissals easier is to improve the employment situation.

Helsinki (10.10.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) The dispute over Government efforts to make it easier to dismiss employees in small companies has not abated. Quite the contrary.

Trade unions are demanding an end to the preparations of the law amendment and are open to negotiations with the Government - which has shown no indication it is willing to negotiate.

SAK, the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions held a meeting of 500 of its affiliated unions decision-makers in Helsinki on Friday 5 October.

Their message was clear: the Government must drop the amendment. The unions do not accept that employment security should be based on the size of the company.

Helsinki (08.10.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) More than 70 companies, trade unions and NGO's are campaigning for a Finnish law on mandatory human rights due diligence. The campaign called Ykkösketjuun is coordinated by the Finnish industry watchdog Finnwatch.

The new law, based on the UN Guiding principles on business and human rights, would oblige companies to map their human rights impacts and to prevent possible negative impacts.

Many companies in Finland already take serious note of the human rights impact of their businesses and Finnish human rights legislation is considered to be at a relatively high level.

However, these companies often work in countries where the state does not guarantee the implementation of internationally recognised human rights. The rights, for example, of children, employees and communities can be infringed on in the global supply chains.

Helsinki (03.10.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) The Union of Professional Engineers in Finland IL has added its weight to the campaign to defend employees against the planned legislation to ease individual dismissals.

The Union announced an overtime and shift swap ban and a ban on travel connected to work outside normal working hours from the midnight of Friday 5 October. The bans cover the technology and chemical industry and will remain in place until further notice.

Samu Salo, President of the Union says that IL is not joining the one day strike on 3 October but will decide possible next steps together with other unions.

"The Union can not just stand by and watch from the sidelines when the Government makes employment security weaker by unilateral dictate", Salo says in explaining the 70,000 member strong Union decision to take action.

Helsinki (01.10.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) Five unions are to stage a one day strike on Wednesday 3 October.

The one day strike, which is in effect a political strike, has been called in order to send a clear message to the Government: that their plans to make individual dismissal easier in companies employing less than 20 people are not acceptable.

"We would not have gone so far, but the stubbornness of the PM Juha Sipilä right-wing Government has left us with no choice", says Riku Aalto, President of the Industrial Union. PM Sipilä Government has more or less scrapped the tradition of trilateral preparations on labour issues.

Helsinki (28.09.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) The neoliberal think tank Libera has filed a complaint against State of Finland to the EU Commission concerning the generally binding collective agreements in Finland. Libera claims these are an obstacle to a free market and competition.

The complaint says that the collective agreements of a generally binding nature do exceptional harm to the Finnish economy, are an obstacle to new jobs and weaken the possibilities of small companies to enter the market.

It also says that generally binding collective agreements can be used as a way of restricting competition.

Helsinki (19.09.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) A number of trade unions have already instated an overtime ban as of Monday 17 September. The unions are demanding that the Government withdraw their planned amendment to the Employment Contracts Act which is aimed at easing the criteria for individual dismissal in businesses employing 20 people or less.

The 220,000 member strong Industrial Union has now called a ban on overtime in almost all of its sectors. The ban will remain in place for the time being, the Union says and adds that it is the first step in what promises to be a protracted campaign of progressive industrial action.

"The Industrial Union will not accept a weakening of the protection against dismissal for anyone. We demand that the government drop the bill immediately, as it would only cause arbitrary layoffs", the Union announce.

Helsinki (04.09.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) A number of trade unions are demanding that the Finnish Government withdraw the planned amendment to the Employment Contracts Act. It is aimed at easing the criteria for individual dismissal in businesses employing 20 people or less.

The Board of SAK, the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions concluded at its meeting on Monday 3. September that all SAK unions are prepared to take measures against the planned amendment. The unions will decide individually what their measures will be.

However, the protests are not limited only to SAK member unions. Some unions from the other two Finnish trade union confederations, STTK and Akava, have already announced they are ready to act, too.

JHL (3.9.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) JHL, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors is considering measures should the Finnish Government go ahead with preparations for new legislation to make individual dismissals easier.

In practise this could mean taking industrial action such as a ban on overtime or limited and targeted strikes.

The Union has not specified what types of action would be taken, but mentions that these will be extended gradually. The details and schedule will be announced later, said the Union Executive Committee in its unanimous decision.