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Helsinki (20.07.2009 - Juhani Artto) Female salaried employees earn, on average, EUR300 per month less than male salaried employees when their job profiles, work experience and working hours are identical. This is indicated by a new study made by the Union of Salaried Employees TU.

In February, almost 17,000 rank and file members replied to the union questionnaire. They work as experts and foremen in private sector industry, construction companies and services.

The gender-related pay gap has already widened considerably before one reaches 30 years of age. It is at its widest just before one retires when men are paid, on average, EUR1,000 per month more than women.

Helsinki (12.07.2009 – Juhani Artto) The withdrawal of the Metalworkers’Union from the amalgamation project which had been launched by a number of industrial unions has not killed efforts to consolidate the union structure within the union confederation SAK. The participants of the failed project have expressed their willingness to consider other kinds of solutions. Some unofficial discussions have already been arranged, union sources confirm.

The reasons behind the push for closer cooperation or amalgamation are clear. Union leaders and activists share the belief that consolidation of the union structure is necessary to strengthen the bargaining power of the organised labour.

In the last few years the employers have been able to make their bargaining organisation more effective. It is this reality more than anything else that has brought home to the trade union movement that there is a compelling need to find solutions that lead to improved efficacy also on the labour side.

Helsinki (07.07.2009 - Juhani Artto) In Finland there is no minimum wage legislation. Instead, in most sectors of working life, national collective agreements determine what the lowest level of wages should be. 

Recently, Yle News (published by the Finnish Broadcasting Company) said that the union confederation SAK and its affiliated unions will strive to raise, in the next round of collective bargaining, all minimum wage levels to at least EUR 1,500 per month. This new demand concerns all those working regular working hours as full-time employees.

Realisation of the demand would not radically change wages and salaries but, still, it would mean for tens or hundreds of thousands of employees a clear improvement in their standard of living. In certain types of job the approximately EUR 8 per hour minimum wage makes for, in terms of full-time employment, a monthly income of only about EUR 1,300.

Helsinki (01.07.2009 - Juhani Artto) How to relate to lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans people? Phrased liked that it sounds like a Hamlet-like dilemma but as far as the Finnish trade union movement is concerned the question is no longer a taboo one. That became obvious on Thursday 25 June when, SAK, the largest union confederation in Finland, announced its full and strenuous support for the rights of all LGBT people.

This watershed event took place at a crowded seminar in a classy downtown hotel in Helsinki where SAK published a position paper on LGBT questions.

In his opening speech SAK President Lauri Lyly stressed that it was high time for the labour market organisations to embrace, in the course of their cooperation, all equality issues, inclusive of the rights of sexual minorities and trans people. He challenged other labour market organisations to include the LGBT issues on their agendas.

Helsinki (18.06.2009 / edited 22.06.2009 - Juhani Artto) Thousands of foreign berry pickers will arrive in Finland once again this year.

The Wood and Allied Workers' Union welcomes them by making available basic information on labour agreements and on legislation that defines working conditions, applicable in Finland.

Helsinki (03.06.2009 / edited 04.06.2009 – Juhani Artto) On Wednesday, the whole amalgamation project of several industrial unions faced a major setback. A clear majority of the Metalworkers’ Union Congress delegates were in favour of the merger but a minority of the delegates prevented this from happeninig.

It was possible as, according to its rules, the Metalworkers' Union cannot be dissolved and its assets transferred into another organisation, in case more than a quarter of the Congress delegates are against such decisions. In the decisive voting the minority had about 37 per cent of the votes.

Helsinki (01.06.2009 - Juhani Artto) Critics are right when claming that the trade union movement has concentrated too much of its energy in promoting permanent, full-time jobs and in the regulation of the use of temporary and other precarious work. This is what Tuire Santamäki-Vuori, the President of JHL, the largest trade union in Finland, said in mid-May, in her opening speech at the SAK General Council meeting. She is the President of the Council. JHL organises employees in the public and welfare Sectors.

In our efforts to safeguard interests we have to proceed more effectively on another track also. Social security has to be developed to satisfy, better than now, the needs of those who have unstable jobs, she went on. "JHL and SAK want to open doors in the direction of new social movements and forge cooperation also with people in precarious jobs."

Helsinki (22.05.2009 - Juhani Artto) Sanoma News, part of the Sanoma Group sent a new agreement to its freelancers on May 19. Following heavy criticism towards the agreement it sent to freelancers in April, the company has changed its position on three matters and demands that freelancers sign the new agreement by 15 June.

The first change is a reaction to the criticism that persons who are interviewed or photographed have the right to know where the material is being published. In the new agreement freelancers are obliged to inform, in advance, the persons they are going to interview or photograph that the material may be used in any newspaper, magazine etc. belonging to the Sanoma Group and also that it may be sold on further.

The second change concerns parallel use of the material provided by freelancers to Sanoma News publications. In the agreement sent to freelancers in April all parallel use was denied. In the new agreement Sanoma News allows the parallel use to photographers but not to illustrators or journalists.

Helsinki (13.05.2009 - Juhani Artto) On Wednesday, about 350 freelancers and their supporters participated in a rally outside Sanomatalo, the main building of the Finnish-based multinational media company Sanoma. The protesters called on Sanoma News, part of the Sanoma Group, to sit down and negotiate –as opposed to the dictatorial stance it has chosen to take- its freelance agreement.

In April Sanoma News informed all freelance journalists, photographers and illustrators who do work for its publications that the company will adopt a new freelance agreement which would significantly affect the working conditions of freelancers for the worse.

By Wednesday 545 freelancers had given the Union of Journalists in Finland the right to negotiate, on their behalf, with Sanoma News, concerning the freelance agreement. It means that a large provision of freelancers, contributing to publications of Sanoma News, have already signed such a document.

Helsinki (11.05.2009 - Juhani Artto) In 2007, foreign citizens earned on average, 5.8 per cent less than Finnish citizens in the Finnish labour market. Finns made, on average, EUR 2,737 per month, and foreigners EUR 2,579.

The gap was largest in the private sector (7.7 per cent) and narrowest in the municipal sector (3.1 per cent). State employees were placed between those two sectors. In the municipal sector the pay gap between Finnish and foreign citizens narrowed slightly from 2001 to 2007. In the same period, the pay gap clearly increased in the private and state sectors.

About half of the 5.8 per cent pay gap is explained by differences in the job structures of Finns and foreigners. The remaining half may indicate unfair treatment of foreigners and/or foreigners being forced to have "lower" jobs than their educational background would allow.