Archive

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.

Helsinki (07.05.2009 - Juhani Artto) The merger or amalgamation of several industrial unions will now take place on 1 January 2011, a year later than planned. The decision, reached unanimously, was made on Tuesday by the project management, which is made up of representatives from the unions involved in the amalgamation.

The extra year for merger preparations is needed to safeguard that the new union will be fully operational at the outset. In recent months, the original timetable for the merger began to look too tight, as the deep recession has caused a significant increase in the workload of union personnel and the unemployment funds.

The Electrical Workers' Union will not participate in the merger. On Wednesday the majority group of the union decided, unanimously, to withdraw from the merger project.

(01.05.2009) Finland’s leading newsprint publisher, Sanoma News, is currently demanding that its freelancers sign a contribution agreement drafted unilaterally by Sanoma News.

Sanoma News has announced that it will not enter into negotiations nor will it pay any additional compensation for a broader transfer of copyright. The message is clear: if you don’t sign and accept the terms and conditions, you won’t get work.

Freelancers’ earnings come, however, precisely from the sale of the copyright to articles, photographs and graphic work to different customers. If this right is lost, then the freelancers also lose the possibility to earn income from the original creative materials.