Archive


Helsinki (07.08.2017 - Heikki Jokinen) Vuokko Piekkala took up her new post as National Conciliator on the Monday 6 August. Immediately after the Finnish Government appointed her she alarmed the trade unions by her comments to the media back in July.

Piekkala is a lawyer and had earlier worked as the labour market director at the Commission for Church Employers. This is one of Finland's central labour market organisations and represents the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in labour market issues.

The National Conciliator is appointed for a four-year-period. For alternate terms the candidate comes from either the trade union side or employers' side.

The position fell vacant as the previous National Conciliator, former trade union lawyer Minna Helle resigned before the end of her term. At the beginning of June Helle changed her career direction when offered a job as the labour market director at the employers Technology Industries of Finland.

JHL (26.07.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) The new Early Childhood Education and Care Act passed by the Finnish Parliament at the end of June has failed before it got started, says Päivi Niemi-Laine, President of the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors.

The Next Government must redraft the law and modify it for the benefit of the child, JHL President insists.

The new law claims to focus on the benefit of the child by raising the educational level of the staff and clarifying job titles. Niemi-Laine says that the law reform did not make any relevant change to improve the quality of early childhood education and care or benefit the child in any way.

– The real problems such as groups which are too big or the ratio of employees to children can continue by the decision of this Government, she says.

Helsinki (24.7.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) The Finnish Government will withdraw a planned proposal for amending 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.

Trade union federations are very pleased with the decision. They have been opposing the proposal all the way since it was first announced in April.

The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK insisted in the end of June the Government call a halt to this proposal and other plans to weaken employment security. The Federation made it clear that if these proposals were to go ahead, it would take action at places of employment.

Helsinki (15.06.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) Two Finnish trade unions are to amalgamate. Trade Union Pro and the Federation of Salaried Employees Pardia signed a letter of intent in mid June concerning the amalgamation.

Trade Union Pro with its 110,000 members is the largest private sector union for clerical employees, experts, supervisory and managerial staff. It has a strong presence in industry, finance, ICT, communications and the service industries.

The Federation of Salaried Employees Pardia has 30,000 members working both in the state and private sectors. Most work in governmental offices and institutions, and some work in public utility companies and enterprises, universities and the Social Insurance Institution of Finland.

Both unions are members of the Finnish Confederation of Professionals STTK.

Helsinki (07.06.2018 - Heikki Jokinen) The Finnish Government has in practise ended any tripartite consensus when drafting legislation, according to the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK.

Tripartite negotiations and agreements have long been a well-established way to resolve major social issues. Governments have, until now,  been able to use the knowledge of all parties and engage them in a concerted effort to tackle issues in a practical way and reach common agreement, SAK says.

Thus, tripartite negotiations have, for decades, been the birthplace of many major social reforms. Some recent examples are the national pact for employment and growth in 2015 with ultra moderate pay rises and reform of the pension system in 2014. With genuine tripartite participation it was possible to make changes without political and social turbulence.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.