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Helsinki (15.05.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) A private unemployment fund is tempting Union members away from their unions and join their fund instead. Unions are finding new ways to react.

Traditionally, the unemployment funds in Finland have been connected to trade unions, but since 1992 there has been a private unemployment fund YTK, too. This has caused some confusion among wage and salary earners, as the Fund has been marketing itself aggressively as an alternative to the trade unions and their unemployment funds.

In fact it is nothing of the sort, as it offers no other services than unemployment benefit. It is keen to stress that its fee is lower than the one paid in membership dues to the union - for all its services and the fund combined.

Trade unions are now campaigning to make it clear what exactly is the difference between a union with its broad services including collective bargaining and a private unemployment fund. The allowances i.e. earnings related benefits in all unemployment funds are the same as these are defined by the state.

Helsinki (11.05.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) The attempt by the Prime Minister-designate Juha Sipilä to create a social contract between labour market organisations has failed.

Centre Party leader, Juha Sipilä is currently leading negotiations to form a new government in Finland following the parliamentary elections held on April 17.

As a part of this process he announced his wish to draft a ”social contract” between the labour market organisations within a very brief time frame.

Sipilä presented three questions to the labour market organisations: how to create a five per cent leap in productivity, how to lower the threshold of employment and how to use the unemployment budget in a more activating way?

JHL (30.04.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) One out of ten Finnish MPs is a member of JHL following the Parliamentary elections April 17. Of the 200 seats, which make up the Finnish Parliament, 21 were won by members of the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL.

”It is a great result”, says JHL chairperson Jarkko Eloranta. ”I wish luck, energy and wisdom to all those who now begin to work in this dignified task under demanding circumstances.”

Out of 21 JHL members elected to Parliament 16 belong to the Social Democratic Party and two to the Left Alliance. The remaining three seats went to Centre Party, Christian Democrats and the Finns Party.

Helsinki (28.04.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) The share of trade union members is still strong in the Finnish Parliament after the elections on April 17. At the same time it was the worst performance for the left since the first elections in 1907.

Many new MPs have long-standing and extensive trade union experience. The former chairperson of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK Lauri Ihalainen was re-elected to Parliament. He is the social democratic Minister of Labour in the outgoing government.

Former chairperson of Trade Union Pro Antti Rinne, also became a newly elected member of Parliament. He is currently Chairperson of the Social Democratic Party of Finland and is still the Minister of Finance until the formation of a new government.

Jaana Laitinen-Pesola, who represents the centre-right National Coalition Party, was chairperson of the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals Tehy 1997-2013. She has also been vice chairperson of the Finnish Confederation of Professionals STTK.

JHL (31.03.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) The privatization, or outsourcing, of municipal services in Finland has not exactly been a success story. Many municipalities are either considering reclaiming services which have previously been outsourced or have already done so.

The trend to reclaim (i.e. remunicipalise) previously outsourced services results from a number of reasons, such as high costs, doubts about quality, possible inferior terms of employment for employees, lack of democratic control and prioritising profits over the needs of citizens while ignoring the question of tax avoidance concerning some of the private service providers.

Helsinki (22.04.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) Nokia’s acquisition of the business operations of the French telecoms equipment company Alcatel-Lucent is about to be realised. The news has made Finnish trade unions worried for jobs.

The merger of two major companies will probably mean job cuts, but where? Nokia has set itself the goal of saving 900 million euro by 2019 through ”operating cost synergies”.

Nokia has promised not to cut French jobs for two years after the deal is signed. It has pledged its intention to establish a 100 million euro fund to invest in start-ups in France.

Nokia also intends to maintain employment in the ”key sites” of Villarceaux and Lannion.

JHL (20.04.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) JHL Chief Executive Officer Päivi Niemi-Laine is satisfied with the latest report about tax-avoidance and public procurements. It is published by Finnwatch, the Finnish industry watchdog which is also supported by several trade unions.

The criteria for public procurements are subject to constant debate, centred round the question of how to take into account social responsibility.

Niemi-Laine says that the Finnwatch report confirms the fact that the legislation itself does not present obstacles for setting criteria of responsibility concerning public procurements.

Helsinki (16.04.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) The Social Democrats emerged as clear winners in the Industrial Union TEAM elections. Their candidates received 73.3 per cent of the votes. The share of votes for the candidates of the Left Alliance was 26.7 per cent.

These elections were the first for TEAM, as the union came into existence in 2010 following a merger of the Chemical Workers' Union and Media Union. Now the 36 000 members with the right to vote have elected 155 delegates to the union congress which will be held in June.

The total number of candidates was 636. Only these latter two political groups put forward candidates. Both also had some nonaligned candidates on their lists.

Helsinki (13.04.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) What is the cost of long-term unemployment to society? Now it is possible to determine the cost with the aid of a web page calculator.

Courtesy of the Finnish Confederation of Professionals STTK, there is now an indicator that can measure or assess the price tag of long-term unemployment in Finland. The figure is running at 216 euro per second, 12,963 euro per minute and 18.7 million euro per day.

”No one can calculate these costs with 100 per cent accuracy”, says Ralf Sund, the economist at STTK, who is behind the calculator. But it is possible to ascertain what the costs are, on the basis of costs of unemployment including unemployment benefits, other social welfare benefits, losses in tax revenue and losses to the pension systems.

Helsinki (27.03.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) Four per cent of all employees in Finland work with zero-hours contracts. Statistics Finland estimates that some 83 000 employees aged between 15 and 64 fall into this category. According to a recent survey more than half of Finns would like to see a law passed to have zero-hours contracts proscribed.

Zero-hours contracts set the weekly working hours from zero to 40, also giving the employer the possibility to hire staff with no guarantee of work. Employees therefore work only when they are needed by employers and cannot usually know in advance how many hours they can expect.

A majority of those with zero-hours contracts, 57 per cent, were women. Those who worked on zero-hours contracts were mainly young: nearly one-half were aged under 25, and 65 per cent were aged under 30.