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Helsinki (24.11.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) Improving the negotiation culture at working places would cut clearly the number of industrial disputes, a survey carried out for the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK reveals.

The survey was conducted in November 2014 for the SAK unions shop stewards and industrial safety delegates and based on 960 replies.

Better staff policy and negotiation culture would very much reduce the number of industrial disputes, believe 71 per cent of those replied.

How to make the negotiation process smoother? By taking care that the employees' opinions are listened to better, say 29 per cent of those who replied in the survey. By limiting the employers priority interpreting collective agreements, says 27 per cent. By making sure that the employees will get sufficient information, says 22 per cent.

JHL (20.11.2104 - Heikki Jokinen)The JHL Union Council has decided to keep the membership fee for 2015 at the same level as now, 1.05 per cent of an employee's gross pay.

However, the Public and Welfare Sectors’ Unemployment Fund membership fee will rise a bit, from the 0.28 per cent of gross pay to 0.33 per cent. The total fee payable to the union and unemployment fund in 2015 will also be 1.38 per cent of gross pay.

The higher contribution to the unemployment fund is linked to growing unemployment. The fund has to have a certain guaranteed income and the fee is approved by the state Financial Supervisory Authority. This is the authority for supervision of Finland’s financial and insurance sectors.

Helsinki (14.11.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) The Finnish Government appointed Master of Laws Minna Helle as the new National Conciliator of labour disputes. She is the first women to hold this position. The appointment is for four years.

At the moment Minna Helle, 42, is working as the Director of Negotiations and Social Policy at the Finnish Confederation of Professionals STTK. She will take up her new post in January 2015.

She has been working previously as a legal adviser at the Union of Journalists in Finland and as the director for employment relations and social policy both at Tehy, the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals and in Akava, the Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff in Finland.

(Helsinki 07.11.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) The Council of Industrial Unions TP is growing. Four new unions signed up recently and now it encompasses 17 unions from all three trade union confederations.

The task of TP is to allow industrial unions to work together more closely in an effort to safeguard the interests of their members. This means activities in the fields of political influence and in economic and industrial policy.

TP has been in existence for more than 20 years but recent structural changes in Finnish industry have made it necessary for closer union cooperation in the industrial sector. More than 100,000 industrial jobs have disappeared in this millennium.

JHL (27.10.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) JHL Chief Executive Officer Päivi Niemi-Laine welcomes the plans of the Swedish government to restrict private profit-seeking and tax avoidance in welfare providence.

Such policy would be very welcome in Finland, too, for the private companies working in welfare services who gain from public funding and work as partners with municipalities.

The new Swedish minority government of Social Democrats and Greens has come to an accord with the opposition Left Party to limit the profits of private companies providing social services.

Helsinki (23.10.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) The Union Council elections at the Wood and Allied Workers' Union caused no political changes. The social democratic majority group got 63.2 per cent of the members' votes.

In previous union elections in 2005 they got a 0.10 per cent bigger share of the votes. The other group, backed by the Left Alliance and the Centre Party got 37.7 per cent of the votes. The polling percentage was 40.2 per cent. The union has some 37,000 members.

Previously members voted for delegates to the Union Congress, but this was the first time that the Council was elected by a direct vote.

Helsinki (16.10.2014 – Heikki Jokinen) Finns feel more under threat and insecure in working life than before. The pace and intensity of work also seem more demanding.

The results are from the Working Life Barometer, which is carried out by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy. In the new 2013 survey 1,755 employees were interviewed. The annual Barometer was published in September 2014.

The views on the employment situation in general and the economic performance of the workplace have been pessimistic for three years in a row, the survey says.

JHL (14.10.2014 – Heikki Jokinen) The Helsinki City Council decision to split up the municipal enterprise Palmia into a company and a municipal enterprise is a disappointment for JHL. The Council voted for corporatisation of Palmia with votes 43 to 41.

”The neutrality demanded by competition legislation should not have necessitated the corporatisation of Palmia real estate services, cleaning services and security services”, says Jarkko Eloranta, chairperson of the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL.

”Palmia work had already been made more effective and efficient in cooperation with the employees. This work could have been continued, but there was no political will for that in the City Council.”

Helsinki (09.10.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) The negative impact of the Ukraine crisis on Finland’s economic growth is turning out to be greater than projected. The conflict affects the economy through sanctions, cutting Finland’s GDP by about one and a half per cent.

This is according to the Labour Institute for Economic Research in their latest economic forecast. It is lowering this year's economic growth forecast to the negative -0.3 per cent. In March they predicted this year's growth is set at 0.9 per cent.

Next year's growth the Institute sets to one per cent. In March it had forecast 2.2 per cent.

Helsinki (02.10.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) Some 550 people have called the hotline that counsels young people working in summer jobs. The service is run by the three trade union confederations Akava, SAK and STTK.

Most of the questions concerned salaries, working hours, unpaid salaries and termination of employment before the agreed time. ”One fifth of those calling mentioned that they were working without a written contract”, says Sini Siikström who ran the service this summer.

”An even bigger share had a zero hour contract. In such cases the obligatory working hours list were often late in coming and shifts were cancelled on too short notice which is against the law and the collective agreement.”