Archive

JHL (05.03.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) The unions representing municipal employees are ready to agree, even at short notice, to a centralized labour market agreement, if the terms and goals set by the unions are achieved.

A centralized agreement would pave the way for the planned local government reform, the unions believe. The Finnish government’s reform plans include several mergers of municipalities, which is a major and controversial issue in Finnish politics at the moment. It is proving to be very difficult to implement.

Helsinki (01.03.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) The Finnish Electrical Workers´ Union recently disclosed how Estonian electrical workers were underpaid on a major construction site (car park P-Hämppi) in the city of Tampere. After the visit of the union representatives some of the Estonian electricians joined the union and asked for help.

"There are many new companies in this branch and it can happen that they just simply do not know the rules. In most cases everything is ok", says ombudsman Jari Ollila in Vasama, the magazine of the union.

JHL (25.02.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) It is unhelpful and biased to view public and private sector jobs as being somehow in conflict or competing with each other, says the JHL president Jarkko Eloranta. He finds, however, clear evidence of this negative adversarial attitude in a fresh report by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, called Industrial Competitiveness Approach.

The ministry report summarises: "Economic growth demands the work input of private sector workers be raised to a sufficient level in relation to the size of the population". Eloranta stresses that it is damaging to undervalue public sector jobs and imagine they merely drain resources from the private sector.

Helsinki (22.02.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) The threat of violence is often present for those working in small shops and kiosks. In 2012 a total of 312 robberies were reported to the police, and the year before 332.

Shoplifting is not classed as a robbery, though such cases may also involve the threat of violence. In 2012 a total of 47,360 shoplifting cases were reported to the police, several thousand less than the year before.

Helsinki (13.2.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) The law concerning paternity leave in Finland has been amended since the beginning of the year, allowing the father to take longer paid paternal leave. This is a part of the policy to divide childcare more equally between parents and to encourage fathers to spend more time with their new babies.

Paternity leave is now 54 working days altogether, approximately 9 weeks. According to Finland's social security provider Kela the father can take 1-18 working days as paternity leave after the child is born.

(10.02.2013 - link to the web site of Nordic Labour Journal)

(08.02.2013 - link to the web site of Pam Magazine)

JHL (06.02.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) From the beginning of February the JHL organisation will operate along three divisional or sectional lines: a division for safeguarding interests, a division for organisational and member services and a division dedicated to joint services. The renewed organisation is based on the union strategy "JHL 2017", adopted last June at the Union Council meeting.

Helsinki (01.02.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) In the last few years Finland has been devoting more and more attention to human trafficking cases. In 2004 the Finnish Penal Code was rewritten to include human trafficking as a separate crime and in 2008 the government adopted a Plan of Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. Since then, the courts have handed down guilty verdicts in four cases with several other cases still pending.

(28.01.2013 - link to the web site of Yle News)