Archive

JHL (10.07.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) Altogether 17 nurses from the Philippines passed their exams to become practical nurses, appropriately enough on the Philippine independence day in June, at Amiedu, the vocational adult education centre in Helsinki. JHL offered grants to two of the students.

The nurses arrived in Finland last October and most of them completed their studies with excellent marks. All underwent Finnish language training also. And they already had nursing qualifications from the Philippines.

(08.07.2013 - Link to the web page of Service Union United PAM)

(07.07.2013 - Link to the web site of Yle News)

Helsinki (05.07.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) The threat of redundancy is a growing concern for Finns. A rise in the rate of redundancies was already discernible at the beginning of the current economic crisis in 2009, says the Trade Union Confederation SAK on the basis on their statistics of mandatory co-operation negotiations in companies.

The Act on Co-operation within Undertakings stipulates that if company has more than 20 employees, the employer is not permitted to issue any redundancy notices without first organising co-operation negotiations with the employees. The purpose of these mandatory negotiations is to try to find alternative solutions to redundancies.

Helsinki (26.06.2013 - Timo-Erkki Heino) "Finnish multinational corporations are export companies which carry out a major part of their activities in Finland." - This is the perception many Finns have of Finnish multinationals. The perception is outdated: in the case of eight major multinational manufacturing companies only 25 per cent of their personnel were in Finland in 2010 compared to 47 per cent in 2000, report Pekka Sauramo and Ritva Oesch in their study* recently published by the Labour Institute for Economic Research.

However, this outdated view still prevails in Finnish economic policy discussion - and practices - with conservative Government ministers demanding moderate or preferably zero-line wage increases in order for these multinational corporations to increase or maintain their employment levels in Finland.

JHL (24.06.2013- Heikki Jokinen) Three out of four Finns (76 per cent) say that public transport belongs to the public services. Only one out of ten think the opposite. This is one of the findings of a public transport barometer commissioned by the JHL.

The political opinion of those interviewed did not influence the result. A great majority among all party supporters saw public transport as an essential part of the public service system. In a previous similar barometer conducted in 2010 those who supported this idea was 79 per cent.

The survey covered 1,048 people from all around Finland. Special focus was placed on the Helsinki metropolitan region with 695 extra interviews. TNS Gallup carried out the survey.

Helsinki (19.06.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) Employees at a Finnish company Moventas Gears were told in January that all 635 employees would be temporarily laid off after mandatory consultation with regard to possible temporary lay-offs. Following this consultation the company took the decision to lay off all employees for 2 - 12 weeks.

Moventas Gears produce gears for industry and wind power stations. It has 970 employees, most of them in Finland. The owner of the company is Clyde Blowers, the Scottish industrial engineering group headed by entrepreneur Jim McColl.

The Metalworkers' Union shop steward Janne Rummakko at the Moventas Jyväskylä factory was at a loss to understand what was happening. "Before Christmas we were told that there will be no temporary lay-offs, as there is so much work", he explains to the journalist Aino Pietarinen in an interview for the Palkkatyöläinen magazine of the trade union confederation SAK.

Zero hour employment contract is a contract, where the number of working hours per week is defined between zero and 40. With these contracts, the employee does not know in advance, whether he or she will have work in the near future or not.

Helsinki (12.06.2013- Heikki Jokinen) Could the German labour market model be an example for Finland was the question put forward in a seminar organised by the Trade Union Pro and Metalworkers' Union. "If you want to create social problems I can recommend our model" said visiting speaker, director Wilhelm Adamy from the German trade union confederation DGB.

He pointed out how the creation of mini-jobs and allowing low salaries has caused increasing poverty in spite of economic growth. "The share or proportion of those on low income has also been growing amongst educated people. Lowering pay was expected to stimulate employment opportunities for those with little education or training, but this has not happened."

Helsinki (04.06.13 - Heikki Jokinen) Owners of a Finnish plastics company were handed down prison sentences for work-related human trafficking and aggravated embezzlement. The Ostrobothnia District Court sentenced the two owners to 2 years and 6 months in prison. They also have to pay more than 200,000 euros in compensation for embezzlement.

This all began in 2004 when the Vietnamese born couple established their own subcontracting company in the small town of Nykarleby and agreed with their employer to take responsibility for some of the factory work. The workers arrived from Vietnam and were related to the owner couple. Many of them were farm workers and illiterate.