Archive

Helsinki (24.07.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) A clear majority of Finns do not support the proposal to remove the right to deduct trade union membership dues in private income taxation. This became clear in a poll commissioned by the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.

In total 59 per cent of citizens asked said they want to continue with the present trade union dues tax-deduction system. Only 14 per cent fully agreed with the idea to make union dues non tax-deductible.

The debate intensified in June when the current prime minister and chairperson of the conservative National Coalition Party, Alexander Stubb was campaigning for the party leadership. He demanded an end to this tax-deductible allowance.

Helsinki (17.07.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) August will mark 120 years since the establishment of the first trade union in Finland, Suomen Kirjaltajaliitto. This seminal union represented workers in the printing industry.

In 2010 its successor Viestintäalan ammattiliitto merged with Kemianliitto, which included workers in various sectors, such as the chemical, rubber, textile and garment industries. This amalgamated union is known as the Industrial Union TEAM. It has some 60,000 members.

Helsinki (26.06.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) Trade unions and employers' federations have signed an agreement with Fennovoima and Rusatom Overseas companies regarding common rules for the future construction work on a nuclear power plant in Pyhäjoki.

The purpose here is to agree in advance on procedures that should be followed at the construction site and to guarantee that everything runs in accord with Finnish legislation and existing collective agreements and practices.

The construction site agreement covers among other things; procedures as to information exchange and problem solving, the role of trade union representatives on site, and ways to prevent and combat the black economy in practice.

JHL (26.06.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) The Arts Promotion Centre Finland faces drastic cuts to its budget. This all began in early June when the statutory employee co-operation negotiations with regard to possible personnel redundancies came up for review. The aim is to achieve an annual savings of 420,000 euros in operating costs as of 2015.

This would lead to the redundancy of every sixth employee at the Centre, say JHL, JUKO and Pardia, which are the main trade unions in charge of state collective bargaining. The Centre has now 51 full-time employees.

The unions are keen to remind us that the former Arts Council of Finland was reorganised last year as a new Arts Promotion Centre Finland and that its work has had a very positive impact. The Centre also employed six new persons last year.

Helsinki (19.06.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) Members of JHL and Tehy unions organised a Gloves off -demonstration in the reception area of Turku University Hospital. They wished to highlight the ethical issue concerning hospital gloves used at the hospital.

The Finnish industry watchdog Finnwatch published a critical report back in March about the labour conditions at the Semperit factories in Thailand. This Austrian company is one of the leading hospital gloves manufacturers.

According to the report the production and labour conditions in the Thai factories are in violation of local legislation, endanger workers' health and contravene international labour rights.

Helsinki (09.06.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) The first vice-chairperson of the Service Union United PAM Jaana Ylitalo was elected to chair the UNI Europa Property Services at its conference in Liverpool. It represents European workers who clean and maintain buildings and provide private security services.

"The number of employees in Europe is growing in these sectors", Ylitalo says. "For this reason we must work especially hard for both terms of work and legislation in these sectors."

It is particularly important to guarantee a living wage and focus on occupational health and working place security, Ylitalo says.

JHL (09.06.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) The Finnish Government issued new guidelines to state offices to avoid such reorganising of work that would lead to more demanding tasks and thus higher salaries. This decision is valid until the end of the year 2018.

The three main public sector collective bargaining unions JHL, Juko and Pardia condemn this in their joint statement. The unions say that the decision goes against the existing collective agreements and it cannot be followed.

According to the state collective agreements salary must rise accordingly when work becomes more demanding and personal competence grows.

Helsinki (07.06.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) Approximate estimates about the age at which Finnish employees are likely to retire have jumped considerably in five years. The preliminary data from Statistics Finland's Quality of Work Life Survey for 2013 clearly demonstrates this.

In 2008 the proportion of Finnish employees over 50 years of age who said they would retire at the age of 64 or later was 28 per cent, but in 2013 the figure was 37 per cent.

Women felt they could continue their working career longer than men did. The figure for women was 39 per cent and for men 32 per cent. The proportion of women holding this view has increased dramatically in the last five years.

The willingness to continue correlates strongly with the level of education and occupational status among employees. The higher these tend to be the greater the willingness to continue longer in working life.

JHL (27.05.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) State owned road and railway construction-cum-maintenance company Destia, has been sold to a private investor. The price for all shares in the company was 148 million euro and the buyer is Ahlström Capital, a Finnish private equity investment company.

JHL Chief Executive Officer Päivi Niemi-Laine sees the timing as bad and the price as far too low. "It makes no sense to sell off a profit making company in times of economic difficulties and especially not at such a ridiculously low price", she says.

She is astonished by the Government’s statement that the company is of no strategic value to the state.

Helsinki (26.05.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) Jorma Malinen was elected new chairperson of the Trade Union Pro at the weekend. The position became vacant two weeks earlier when the Pro Chairperson Antti Rinne was elected party leader of the Social Democratic Party of Finland.

Trade Union Pro is the largest Finnish private sector union for clerical employees with 130,000 members.

At an extraordinary meeting of the Pro council Malinen was elected by a clear majority. He got 90 votes against 10 votes for Jouko Ahonen. Ahonen is the former chairperson of the Paper Workers' Union.