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Helsinki (10.03.2003 - Juhani Artto) How is the Finnish welfare state holding up in 2003? What are its prospects? Will it survive the pressures of globalisation? How can the welfare model be developed?

The details of these major questions are considered daily in a large variety of ways, both publicly and privately. Every citizen has a point of view. Politicians submit their claims and proposals; public authorities have their own positions. Researchers must often play the role of advising their audiences as to how things really are but, as is natural, they are also divided in their conclusions.

In October 2002 two researchers, Anu Kantola and Mikko Kautto, published a book* in which they list the issues that must be addressed and outline the options on various questions. The researchers draw no concrete conclusions, leaving this to those concerned and especially to politicians, whom they recently criticised for their unwillingness to state openly what kind of welfare model they support.

Helsinki (21.02.2003 - Juhani Artto) Why has the rapid decline in work-related accidents and diseases virtually stopped? "There are competent risk studies in practically all industries, but the results are not transmitted effectively to the workplaces," comments Jyrki Liesivuori, who is professor of occupational and environmental toxicology at the University of Kuopio in Eastern Finland.

One obvious weakness is a shortage of training at all levels. "Only 20 per cent of the occupational safety staff of enterprises have participated in basic occupational safety courses" Liesivuori notes, referring to findings reported by the Centre for Occupational Safety.

"Preparing the risk analysis required by the new European Union Occupational Safety and Health Directive is a much more demanding matter than performing routine safety work. The training needed for conducting such an analysis has not yet been organised."

Helsinki (20.02.2003 - Juhani Artto) According to the most commonly quoted statistics, no more than about 200 people die of occupational diseases, workplace accidents and work-related traffic accidents annually in Finland. This figure, however, is a poor reflection of the total risk posed by workplaces. This is the conclusion of an epidemiological study* published in June 2001. For some reason the study has not received the attention it deserves in Finland.

Calculations based on a large body of statistical data yield an estimate of 1,800 work-related deaths per year. "The estimate indicates that work-related factors play a bigger role than has been commonly assumed," notes the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in its press release. The study was the first of its kind in Finland, and was based on statistical materials dating from 1996.

Helsinki (19.02.2003 - Juhani Artto) Despite the massive human and material investments in occupational safety and health made in the 1990s, there has been no decisive improvement in occupational safety. This conclusion may be drawn from statistics for the period 1992-2000 shown below:

Table 1. Compensated industrial accidents
   and occupational diseases, 1992-2000  

Helsinki (08.02.2003 - Juhani Artto) In late January some 60 representatives of trade unions and NGOs gathered at the Parliament of Finland. They were there to voice their demands, proposals and questions about the international service trade negotiations that seek to reform the global service trade rules expressed in the 1995 General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

Minister for Foreign Trade Jari Vilén, the Members of Parliament responsible for monitoring GATS issues, and civil servants specialising in trade questions were all present to outline recent developments in the negotiations and to respond to the questions posed by the activists.

Less than a year ago barely anybody could have envisioned such a meeting taking place so soon. Only a handful of experts and activists in trade unions and NGOs had any better knowledge of the many and complex issues of the GATS arrangement. Since then several public sector unions and NGOs have worked actively on GATS. This activity has included studying, educating, publishing and lobbying.

Helsinki (05.02.2003 - Juhani Artto) The Wood and Allied Workers’ Union is threatening a strike in the mechanical forest and carpentry industry. Industrial action of 10,500 workers will begin 24 February if the current round of negotiations for a collective agreement fail. When announcing the strike threat the union also declared an overtime ban in the industry with immediate effect.

About 18,000 workers in the mechanical forest industry and 12,000 in the carpentry industry are organised in the Wood and Allied Workers' Union.

Helsinki (01.02.2003 - Juhani Artto) The Belorussian journalist Aliaksandr Starykevich visited Helsinki in January, just a few months after his previous visit. Developing co-operation with the Finnish trade union movement has been high on the agenda of these visits. In his home country of Belarus the independent, democratic trade union movement faces a difficult situation that deserves urgent and effective international solidarity.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko governs this country of ten million people in the style of a dictator, with elections serving merely as a smoke screen barely concealing the undemocratic reality. Aliaksandr Starykevich himself has been one of the victims of Lukashenko's rule. The opposition candidate in the 2001 presidential election was Vladimir Gontsharik, who at that time led the major union federation FTUB (FPB in Belorussian).

An Indian journalist approached me as the publisher of Trade Union News from Finland inquiring about job opportunities for migrant journalists writing in English. As Daryl Taylor with whom I co-operate in producing Trade Union News from Finland is very active with immigrants in Finland, I asked him to reply to the journalist. Here are some excerpts from Daryl's reply. - Juhani Artto 

Helsinki (30.01.2003 - Daryl Taylor) On a brief perusal of your letter and CV I got the feeling that you aren't likely to find much work in Finland. There are only just over 7,000 native speakers of English here, and the home market for English language media as such is otherwise fairly marginal. Some of the mainstream media run English language services on a small scale, but I don't get the feeling that it's much of an industry financially speaking.

Trade Union News from Finland (19.01.2003 - Erkki Laukkanen*) The Finnish State Auditors’ report on State finances in 2001, published in late November 2002, includes an estimate that about EUR 5 billion circulates annually in the grey economy in Finland. The corresponding loss in tax revenues is approximately EUR 2.5 billion. This makes the grey economy a significant threat to the welfare state.

SAK favours more effective measures to combat the grey economy in order to reduce these losses. This requires more human and other resources to be allocated in the State budget to the fight against the grey economy and economic crime. Both domestic and foreign experience indicates that the rewards to be gained from investing in measures to combat the grey economy exceed the costs of so doing many times over.

Helsinki (10.01.2003 - Daryl Taylor) With particular reference to the situation of migrant workers, SAK is proposing that trade unions should have locus standi to defend employees whose rights have been infringed. A parallel proposal has also recently been debated in ethnic relations, whereby organisations would be entitled to file and pursue legal claims on behalf of the victims of ethnic discrimination. The main argument for these proposals is that the situation of the victim may, for practical or psychological reasons, be so disadvantaged that the victim is either unable or unwilling to initiate and carry through a difficult legal process.

The SAK proposal involves a significant shift in current procedures for settling legal issues arising from employment in Finland. These issues divide into questions of public and private law. On the one hand, employers are criminally liable for certain aspects of employment. The State authorities can prosecute an employer for defaulting on such liabilities, whether or not any worker was injured by the default, and even if the employees concerned oppose the prosecution.