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Helsinki (18.06.2003 - Juhani Artto) A new study indicates that distance working has only marginally reduced work-related traffic and the consequent burden on the environment. This conflicts with the expectations that were entertained when job structure changes and new technologies began to create conditions for distance working.

The study, based on interviews with 19,000 working people, exposes that in 2001 only about five per cent of those in work were engaged in distance working. Experts suggest that the potential for distance working is much larger than this, and could rise to as much as 40 per cent of all jobs.

This wide discrepancy between actual and potential distance working was not the most surprising discovery of the study, however. It was even more important to note that people engaged in distance working visited their workplaces at enterprises almost daily.

Helsinki (01.06.2003 - Juhana Vartiainen**) Before the March parliamentary elections in Finland political parties described their goals and presented their promises. Civil servants, researchers and central banks are often of the opinion that election promises are too generous and that "we cannot afford them". Yet it is striking to notice how much more grudging both promises and programmes have become in the last 10 to 15 years.

Until the 1980s the enlargement and construction of the welfare state was in full swing. New services were created, social security was expanded, pensions were increased and child allowances grew. Compared with these old good days, the entire welfare policy now looks rather anaemic and tight-fisted - and the political parties may seem quite similar as the differences between their reform demands are ultimately rather marginal.

What reasons lie behind this change towards a less generous policy? Many people believe that this is due to a process of "globalisation" that forces Finnish enterprises to compete in an international market so that "we can no longer afford" the welfare state that we used to have. However, it is self-deception to lay the blame on globalisation in this way. There is nothing new in globalisation: for a century welfare in Finland has been based on the country’s participation in the international division of labour.

Helsinki (19.05.2003 - Juhani Artto) Finland is one of a handful of countries where a large majority of wage and salary earners have joined trade unions. A new survey* published in February 2003 indicates that the organising rate in 2001 was over 70 per cent. Comparison with the previous survey reviewing the situation in 1994 sends a warning signal to the union movement, however. In seven years the organising rate has fallen by about 7 percentage points.

Over two million trade unionists in a nation of five million people

At the end of 2001 affiliates to the three central trade union confederations had a total of 2,082,265 rank and file members. The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions - SAK (25 unions) had 51.1 per cent of these, while the Finnish Confederation of Salaried Employees – STTK (22 unions) had 29.4 per cent and the Confederation of Unions for Academic Professionals in Finland – Akava (33 unions) had 19.5 per cent.

Helsinki (04.05.2003 - Juhani Artto) Nokia Networks, the infrastructure arm of Nokia Plc, announced in April that it plans to cut 1,100 jobs in Finland. The reductions will occur in R&D, operations, sales, marketing and support functions. The goal is to reduce costs, improve profitability and strengthen the company’s position in the mobile infrastructure business.

Finnish Metalworkers Union President Erkki Vuorenmaa says that the move demonstrates a mismatch between Nokia’s declared values and its concrete behaviour. Vuorenmaa points out that the enterprise argument for extensive job reductions and redundancies rests purely on improving profitability, which means meeting shareholder expectations.

In the course of codetermination negotiations on the proposed measure Vuorenmaa is calling for Nokia’s leadership to consider what is most important to the enterprise: maintaining the highest possible profit margin or retaining skilled and able employees in preparation for the coming high business cycle.

Helsinki (28.04.2003 - Peter J. Boldt) "Stupid," was the comment of European Commission President Romano Prodi a while ago on the EMU Stability and Growth Pact. This arrangement does not allow the public sector deficit to exceed three per cent of GNP. As the highest guardian of the European Union founding treaties, Prodi should not have been allowed to make such a statement, but he chose to publish his point of view in his civilian capacity as a professor of economics.

When SAK economists have criticised the Stability Pact over the years, most Finnish economists have regarded us as irresponsible and ignorant.

Nowadays, however, it is widely admitted, even at the European Commission, that the Stability Pact is not working. The strict deficit restriction prevents active finance policy precisely when it is most urgently needed, i.e. when growth slows down and unemployment grows.

Helsinki (13.04.2003 - Juhani Artto) Present and former trade union members form a clear majority of the new Finnish Parliament elected in mid-March. Of the 200 seats, at least 120 were won by candidates who are either present or former members of unions. This is roughly the same proportion of trade union representation as in the March 1999 election result.

The preponderance of MPs with a union background is hardly surprising, as the organising rate in Finland is among the highest in the world. Another reason behind the electoral success of unionised candidates is the strong support given by national unions and their local branches to their own members.

The smallest of the three main labour confederations, Akava, which mainly organises the academically qualified, has the largest representation in Parliament. According to Akava, at least one third of the new MPs are present or former members of its affiliated unions. 28 of these were teachers before entering politics. Other academic trades with sizeable representation are doctors, lawyers and technical specialists.

Helsinki (24.03.2003 - Juhani Artto) Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are due to become EU Member States on 1 May 2004. The forthcoming accession of the Baltic countries has increased interest within the Finnish trade union movement in the progress that these countries are making in working life. This has fostered both worries and positive expectations, depending on which aspects of working life and European Union membership conditions are discussed.

A new study*, published in March by the Finnish Ministry of Labour, thoroughly updates the analysis of working life in these three countries. In an opening summary the researchers list the following key points:

1. "Normalisation" in Estonia

The evolution of working life in Estonia in recent years has been quite continuous and steady, and has also been favourable on the whole. The trend has been towards 'normalisation', including cuts in excessively long working hours – and thus in overtime, less unofficial work in the grey economy, fewer delays in salary payments, and a narrowing of salary differentials between men and women. One significant problem, however, is that workers still have few opportunities to influence their own jobs.

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.