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Helsinki (17.03.2016 - Heikki Jokinen) Employers cannot stop potential strikes by demanding that district courts impose conditional fines on unions when the collective agreement is valid. The Supreme Court made this decision in the case of a planned strike at the national flag carrier Finnair.

In June 2012 Finnair salaried employees belonging to the Trade Union Pro and some other unions announced they were taking strike action due to planned personnel cuts and outsourcing. The company asked the Helsinki district court to ban the strike and impose a conditional fine of almost three million euro on the unions.

The district court accepted the application on the very same day without hearing the defendants.

In the event, the strike was called off but the case led to a juridical process lasting almost four years and went all the way to the Supreme Court.

Helsinki (29.02.2016 - Heikki Jokinen) The labour market organisations finally agreed on a broad labour market pact. It makes working hours a bit longer and will cut the income of employees.

Trade union confederations are, however, ready to swallow the pact as it might provide the stimulus for Finland to find a way out of its recent economic difficulties and improve employment prospects. One precondition for the pact becoming effective is that the Government abandon its plans to restrict freedom of bargaining by legislative measures.

The pact - which is called the competitiveness contract - is a result of a long and winding road. The centre-right Government of Prime Minister Sipilä announced in September 2015 of their plans to impose serious restrictions on collective bargaining rights, holidays and wages through dint of legislation.

Helsinki (25.02.2016 - Heikki Jokinen) The outline for a local bargaining model is right now under intense negotiation between labour market organisations.

The Finnish Government last week issued a statement saying that local bargaining will be ushered through primarily by collective bargaining and complemented by legislation.

Promoting local bargaining is one of the key points of the Government Programme. It would mean more flexibility at the working place level to change the terms and conditions of employment and how to organise work at the company level.

The state owned energy company Fortum sold their electricity networks to Caruna in 2013. Caruna is mainly owned by foreign investors. Now Caruna takes the sales price back with interest rates, too, Eloranta writes in his blog.

Helsinki (12.02.2016 - Heikki Jokinen) The process of intensified cooperation between the industrial trade unions has led to a deliberation on amalgamation.

The Woodworkers’ Union (46,000 members), Paper Workers' Union (47,000), Metal Workers' Union (144,000) and Industrial Union TEAM (57,000) have been engaged in talks since late 2014 exploring various options aimed at closer cooperation.

No concrete decisions have been taken yet but in March the unions are preparing to sign a letter of intent on a way forward towards possible amalgamation. The list of open questions remains long but now the work to find common solutions can begin in earnest.

If the process moves forward, the new union could emerge at the beginning of 2018. With its 294,000 member it would become the largest union in Finland. Now the four unions have a total of 264 employees.

JHL (29.01.2016 - Heikki Jokinen) JHL managed to attract 12,837 new members in 2015 bringing its membership to 225,000.

However, the total number of members is now somewhat lower than a year before. Even though there were a lot of new members joining, due to the number of retired members the total membership of JHL sank by a couple of per cent.

JHL is the second largest trade union in Finland, just after the Service Union United PAM.

A clear majority of members are women, 70 per cent. This majority has just become even stronger, as 74 per cent of the new members in 2015 were women.

Helsinki (27.1.2016 - Heikki Jokinen) The Finnish Government is planning to reduce protection against precarious employment. Trade union confederations are afraid this will lead to an even further weakening of the position of women and young people in the labour market.

The working group set up by the Finnish Government presented in its report in January which is now under public consultation.

The working group came up with three main proposals. The first is that a period of fixed-term employment would be allowed under any circumstances i.e. without any specified reason, and for a maximum of three times during a year.

At the moment there has to be a valid reason for employing a person for a fixed-term, such as to fill a vacancy for someone on sick-leave or because the work is of a seasonal character. It is also forbidden to make a chain of fixed-term periods of employment.

JHL (12.01.2016 - Heikki Jokinen) Financing for the reform of the social welfare and health care structure shows every sign of resting on unsound foundations, says JHL Chief Executive Officer Päivi Niemi-Laine.

Though the existing multichannel financing model is not good, Niemi-Laine admits, she has serious doubts concerning the model the Government is planning.

From the beginning of 2019 Finland will be divided into 18 self-governing regions that will have responsibility for social welfare and health care in those regions.

The new reform means that more than 200,000 employees will have a new employer. Today social welfare and health care is administered by 190 joint municipal authorities and local authorities.

Helsinki (11.01.2016 - Heikki Jokinen) The number of redundancies in the private sector has continued to remain at over 10,000 a year according to  the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK.

In 2015 a total of 11,907 employees lost their jobs, according to SAK estimates. In the year 2014 the number was 12,447. The last time the figure was below 10,000 was in the year 2010, says SAK which have been keeping statistics since 2006.

The statistics are based on information made publically available and do not include the municipal sector. This means that the actual figures are even greater still.

Major redundancies took place at Microsoft Mobile, which closed its unit in the city of Salo letting 2,300 people go. Other major redundancies took place at the IT services company Tieto with 435 people left without work.

JHL (23.12.2015 – Heikki Jokinen) Local authority decision makers are facing a challenging year, JHL strongly affirms in its letter to members of municipal councils.

The Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL send a letter to 7 500 members and deputy members of municipal councils four times a year.

The municipal council is the highest decision making body of local governments and is elected by secret ballot for a four year term. The number of councillors vary from 17 to 85 depending on the number of inhabitants.

The main issue in the letter is the recent decision of the Finnish Government to orchestrate a major reform of the social welfare and health care structure.