Archive

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.”

Helsinki (28.09.2014 – Heikki Jokinen) The intense negotiations between labour market organisations concerning employment pension reform have ended with many proposed changes to the existing system. The agreement was signed by two of the three trade union confederations.

The minimum retirement age will be raised gradually from 63 to 65 for persons born after 1955. Also, the system of accumulation of pensions will change.

At the moment the pension system offers an incentive to keep people in working life longer a with better pension accrual the longer one works. The usual 1.5 per cent of earnings accrual per year is to be raised to 1.9 per cent for each working year between the ages of 53 and 62 and to 4.5 per cent from age 63.

In the new agreement the pension accrual will be 1.5 per cent in a year of employees' entire earnings throughout their working careers between the ages of 17 and 65.

Helsinki (23.09.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) Two trade unions have won important cases at the Labour Court. Both cases were connected to positions held by shop stewards.

The Electrical Workers' Union took a case to the Labour Court where both the shop steward and industrial safety delegate of a company were demoted to lower income work.

They had been working on piecework pay but the employer decided that from now they should be on time rate pay.

And at the same time the company was trying to force employees to accept piecework at lower rates of pay. Employee representatives were made to suffer personally for defending the rights of the workers.