Archive

Helsinki (05.10.2009 - Juhani Artto) It is difficult to understand why so few companies have invested so little -in terms of their risk management strategies- when it comes to looking after employees' brain and mind, says research professor Kiti Müller. She is the director of the Brain and Work Research Centre at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. 

However, when asked, she has an explanation for this, which she, herself, finds utterly unsatisfactory. The situation goes hand-in-hand with the fact that -until now- one has not been able to measure objectively and reliably the overall brain load level.

They are caused, for example, by cognitively demanding work tasks combined with internal, human related factors, such as lack of sleep or coexisting chronic diseases (diabetes, sleeping disorders, mental stress etc.). Therefore, company managers, used to paying attention only to measurable variables have ignored findings and lessons to be learned offered by brain researchers.

Helsinki (21.09.2009 - Juhani Artto) Service Union United PAM had, at the end of 2008, almost 3,600 rank and file members whose mother language was other than any of the domestic language in Finland: Finnish, Swedish or Sami. Russian speakers represented the largest foreign language group, with 1,112 members.

The other large language groups were made up of Estonian speakers (655 members), English speakers (448), Thai speakers (125) and Chinese speakers (120). In PAM more than 50 languages were spoken as mother tongues.

Members, coming from a foreign background, represented less than 1.7 per cent of the union's total membership (213,380) but the union regards defence of their rights as very important. New evidence of this became public in August when the union approved its first immigration policy programme.

Helsinki (08.09.2009 - Juhani Artto) As a whole, in Finland, companies, municipalities and the state invest far too little in the well-being of their employees. This is the major conclusion of a new study*. To become economically rational, business, municipal and government organisations should spend several times more on the well-being of their employees than they do now.

According to Guy Ahonen, one of the three researchers who carried out the study, the analysis represents a new type of study-the first of its kind in the world- on employees' well-being. The novelty is that the study covers all well-being-related investments within work organisations.

The conclusion is based on two calculations/estimates.

Helsinki (02.09.2009 - Juhani Artto) The Construction Trade Union and the Finnish Consumers' Association have reached good results in their two-year campaign to change the eating habits of construction workers and students. During the campaign, three well-informed young workers visited hundreds of construction sites and schools to bring their message on what's good and what's bad in daily diets and eating habits.

They met face-to-face over 25,000 workers and students. Last spring, some 500 of them filled in the questionnaire outlining their impressions and reactions to the lessons given by the three promoters. Those who were asked to fill out the questionnaire had met the promoters on at least two occasions.

Five out of six reported positive changes. The most common change was for the participants to eat more vegetables, fruit and berries. 59 per cent belonged to this group. Almost as many again (58 per cent) had begun to eat less fast food.

Helsinki (31.08.2009 - Juhani Artto) The headline is taken from a recent column* written by Jyrki Raina, the Finn who in May was elected as the new General Secretary of the International Metalworkers' Federation. In the column he refers to the struggles which the IMF has recently been involved in, from Thailand to Russia and from South Korea to Mexico. No doubt the huge organisation, embracing 25 million rank and file members, and organised in 200 trade unions in over 100 countries, never sleeps.

But just how effective is this organisation and that of its umbrella organ, the IMF which has its head office in Geneva in Switzerland? "I was elected to the post since a large majority of IMF's affiliated unions want to have a more effective and more visible global federation", Raina writes.

Helsinki (Risto Rumpunen - 17.08.2009) A group of Chinese cleaners and a Finnish job recruitment company are set to battle it out in the Finnish courts. And the backdrop to this story is that Chinese jobseekers have apparently paid huge fees to work in Finland in low wage jobs. Some jobseekers haven't even got the jobs they were promised when they left China for Finland.

In China, job-hiring agencies explained to the hopeful Chinese seeking employment in Finland that the lion’s share of the excessive recruitment fees they are obliged to pay would go to Finnish companies. Meanwhile Finnish job recruitment companies deny this and claim that they cannot take any responsibility for the actions of Chinese companies. So who gets the money?

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.