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Helsinki (05.07.2010 - Juhani Artto) Work-related exhaustion may even be fatal for industrial employees who are under 45 years of age. Work-related exhaustion almost trebles their death risk. This has been established in a study* made by researchers of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. The finding stresses the urgency of prevention of work-related exhaustion among younger employees.

The study was the first of its kind in the world. It was conducted in the forest industry. The sample for the statistical study involved over 7,000 employees. A similar increase in the risk of death, as a consequence of the work-related exhaustion, was not found among older employees.

Work-related exhaustion is a consequence of excessive workload that has continued over a long period. It may be caused, for example, by long-enduring contradictions at the work place or work goals that cannot be achieved, the researchers explain.

Helsinki (22.06.2010 / updated 22.06.2010 - Juhani Artto) In late May 2010, when the Food Workers' Union SEL signed the new collective agreement for food workers, an unusually long round of bargaining came to an end. It had begun in August 2009 with the collective agreement for technology industry workers, signed by the Metalworkers' Union.

In light of the exceptionally difficult economic conditions the trade unions have fared well. In autumn 2009 the agreements raised wages and salaries by between 0.5 and 0.6 per cent, and the agreements signed in spring 2010 saw a rise of about 1 per cent. In the private sector the cost impact of the agreements is on average 0.6 per cent per annum, in the municipal sector (that employs a fifth of the labour force) slightly higher. In 2009 inflation sank close to zero.

Helsinki (18.06.2010 - Juhani Artto) Authorities are now beginning to take notice of job ads which feature discriminatory elements. When there is a clear case of discrimination in job adverts, the authorities send a cautionary note to employers, alerting them to such irregularities and instructions to comply with the law on equality and discrimination.

A recent study on discrimination in working life also took a look at discrimination in job ads. The researchers based this part of their study on 95 job ads that had been advertised between 2008 and 2009 -all found to be discriminatory or otherwise interesting in this connection.

Helsinki (30.05.2010 - Juhani Artto) Jyrki Raina, the General Secretary of the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF), was satisfied following the meeting on 18 May with Nokia's CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. The parties had confirmed their willingness to continue dialogue on employees' rights in Nokia's units around the world. 

In December 2009 the Finnish-based ICT multinational Nokia had production units in Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Romania,China, India, South Korea, Mexico and Brazil. At the end of 2009 the company had over 123,000 employees. Many of these countries present difficult environments for union activists and organisations, Raina said. 

IMF would like to negotiate and sign a international framework agreement (IFA) with Nokia but the company is not yet ready for it. Raina is hopeful that Nokia will warm to the idea of an IFA within the next two or three years.

Helsinki (18.05.2010 - Juhani Artto) Timo Nyberg, the CEO of Sevirita Oy, and his Chinese wife are accused of charging huge recruitment fees from almost 60 Chinese cleaners who moved to Finland some time ago for work. The couple are also being charged with collecting fees for language training the cleaners did not receive.

A district court in Helsinki will hear the case in the coming autumn. If the accused are found guilty, they will have to pay hefty compensation to the Chinese cleaners. And compensation, in this case, could amount to several hundreds of thousands of euros. The lawyer for the cleaners has asked the court to order the confiscation of property belonging to the accused to the tune of over EUR700,000.

Helsinki (13.05.2010 - Juhani Artto) SAK, the largest union confederation in Finland, is encouraging its employees to avail of the opportunity to employ social media in their work. "Participation (in social media) is desirable but not obligatory", the SAK guidelines outline.

Employees may decide themselves on participation and on their own net identity. When commenting on issues, related to one's tasks at SAK, the individual has to use his or her own name and treat other discussion participants respectfully.

"Be active, open-minded and polite. Listen and try to understand other people."

Helsinki (03.05.2010 - Juhani Artto) A year ago police were called to intervene in the beating of a Vietnamese worker in the sleepy small town Uusikaarlepyy at Ostrobothnia. It was the beginning of a process that has exposed what has been described as "exceptionally brutal exploitation" in Intiim magazine’s editorial. 

The exploiter in this instance has been a subcontractor for a plastic company, and it was the subcontractor' sons who assaulted the Vietnamese worker.

According to the latest issue of Intiim, the magazine of the trade union TEAM, police soon found out that the subcontractor was in several other respects a rotten employer. In practise, male employees earned no more than EUR800 monthly and female employees only EUR500.

Helsinki (25.04.2010 - Juhani Artto) Tens of thousands of employees have lost their jobs since the beginning of the recession in autumn 2008. In the technology industry alone, the number of employees fell by 10 per cent in 2009 i.e. by 24,000 persons. 

And the technology industry is a case in point. The chances of keeping one's job, for certain kind of people, have been far from good. This is the outcome of the mini study recently published by Ahjo, the magazine of the Metalworkers' union.

The study, made by Markku Tasala, a journalist, is based on interviews with eight shop stewards working in the technology industry. And it concerns work places where, during the recession, altogether 880 employees have been given notice after the mandatory company-level consultation.

Helsinki (19.04.2010 - Juhani Artto) Each year almost 4,000 young adults join the ranks of those classed as permanent disability pensioners. This is naturally very costly for society as a whole. The main loss is estimated to lie with the early termination of their working careers.

The extent and magnitude of the loss involved has been calculated by Guy Ahonen, a health economy expert at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. According to Ahonen, the loss, just taking into account those 16 to 34 year olds who became disability pensioners in 2008 alone, amounts to EUR6.6 billions. The figure reveals the missing value of their work performances from 2008 to the year when they reach the normal retirement age of 65.

Helsinki (31.03.2010 / edited 01.04.2010 – Juhani Artto) In recent years there has been no real rise in the "risk element" of working life in Finland but at the same time there has been no discernable improvement in this area either. This is the major result of the broad study on Finnish working life, published a week ago by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH).

"Hardly any progress was made nationally in occupational safety and health in the 2000s, when measured against trends in occupational accidents and sickness absence", researchers conclude. "On the other hand, good examples of the impact of improved occupational safety and health have also been set.

Separate studies suggest that workplaces are polarized as far as occupational safety and health are concerned. While best organizatons are actively developing this area, the weaker ones are at risk of a decline in standards."

The study is based on interviews, made in 2009, of about 3,000 working people from the ages of 20 to 64. Similar studies were made in 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006. Trade Union News fromFinland publishes the English language summary of the 2009 study by permission of the FIOH.