Archive

Helsinki (17.12.2012 – Juhani Artto) In the 2000s, the debate on the role of public services in social and health care has been continuous. During the months preceding the municipal elections, held at the end of October, this issue was at the fore of public debate.

Those who favour outsourcing have proceeded gradually but in recent years there has also been numerous instances of a reversal of this policy. In 2010 less than a quarter of all social and health care services were provided by private providers.

Helsinki (14.12.2012 – Juhani Artto) In Mexico several Finnish-based companies are failing to respect the right of their employees to organize. This was exposed in a report published by the Finnish watchdog Finnwatch on Tuesday.

The companies breaching employees’ rights are Huhtamäki, Kone, Luvata and Metso. The report does not include data from Nokia’s and Savcor’s factories in Mexico as these companies declined to respond to Finnwatch’s questionnaire.

Helsinki (07.12.2012 - Juhani Artto) Finland's exports have weakened in the 2000s, and last year the current account balance slipped into negative figures for the first time in many years. Employer representatives claim that the problems in exports are due to weakened price competitiveness of the industrial sector. But this is not true, comments Jorma Antila, the director of the research unit at the Metalworkers' Union.

He refers to statistics that offer no hard facts in support of the employers' claims. The price competitiveness of the industrial sector has remained fairly stable throughout the 2000s, Antila reminds us in his column in Ahjo, the magazine of the Metalworkers' Union.

Helsinki (05.12.2012 - Juhani Artto) In the second quarter 2012 the average wages for female workers in Finnish industry were 85.2 per cent of average wages for male workers. In the last two years the gap has slightly narrowed and is now marginally narrower than in the fourth quarter 2006. In the second quarter 2002 the corresponding figure was 80.5 per cent.

Helsinki (29.11.2012 - Juhani Artto) Finland introduced a reverse charge in VAT (value added taxation) for the construction sector on 1 April 2011. With reverse VAT it is the buyer of services that pay the VAT and not the seller as is common under the normal VAT system. In practice, this means that the main contractor is obliged to report and pay VAT to the Tax Administration (Inland Revenue) in respect of the entire work or project.

Preliminary results indicate that this measure has succeeded in reducing tax fraud, which was the main goal of the reform. According to the study, published on Tuesday by the Tax Administration, the changes boost state coffers by at least EUR 75 million more in VAT-revenue annually.

Helsinki (23.11.2012 - Juhani Artto) The public sector uses relatively more fixed-term employment relations than the private sector but the pay gap between permanent and temporary employees is wider in the private sector.This situation has remained unchanged for many years. In 2011, nearly 16 per cent of all wage and salary earners had a temporary job.

Almost 23 per cent of public sector employees were in fixed-term employment relations.At central government level the proportion was slightly higher than at local government level. In the private sector 12 per cent of the employees held temporary jobs. Less than 13 per cent of males worked as temporary employees, whereas 18.5 per cent of females had fixed-term employment relations.

Helsinki (14.11.2012 - Juhani Artto) The three union confederations in Finland - SAK, STTK and Akava – support the euro and the strengthening of EU's economic policy cooperation and regard economic coordination as essential.

However, when it comes to the question of EU economic steering the independent bargaining position of labour market parties must be fully respected, the union confederations stress.

This demand is included in the statement the three organizations presented on Wednesday to Jyrki Katainen, the Prime Minister of Finland. The statement is aimed to coincide with the day of action and solidarity the European trade union movement is organising on November 14.

Helsinki (08.11.2012 – Juhani Artto) The Finnish-based tyre manufacturer Nokian Renkaat uses anything from 40,000 to 50,000 tons of natural rubber annually. The processors and traders that provide natural rubber to the company have committed themselves to respect the code of conduct of Nokian Renkaat. However, the code’s reach is limited as it only concerns the personnel of the processors and traders themselves but not those of the rubber plantations or the intermediaries.

Helsinki (31.10.2012 - Juhani Artto) In the last quarter of 2011, the average monthly pay was EUR 3111*. In the space of one year it had increased by EUR 68. During the year prior to that the increase was EUR 66.

In the period from 2002 to 2011 these two figures (EUR 68 and EUR 66) were the smallest one-year rises of the average nominal pay. The highest increases were recorded from the last quarter of 2007 to the last quarter of 2008 (EUR 142) and in the following year (EUR 101) and in the preceding year (EUR 100).

JHL (25.10.2012 - Juhani Artto) In the municipal election of 28 October voters decide also on employer policy, says Jarkko Eloranta, JHL's President.
"The election result has an impact on municipal employer's policy decisions, and those decisions are felt especially in women's lives, as a big majority of municipal employees are women."
Eloranta stresses that outsourcing of municipal services so that cheaper collective agreements will be applied is a typical matter concerns women in particular.
"To a great extent it is their wages and working conditions that are in the play."