| The normal working week in day
work is 36.6 hours, in discontinuous 3-shift work 36.0 hours and in continuous 3-shift
work 34.9 hours. Unsociable working hours are
compensated by hourly bonuses which are, for example, FIM 8.00 (1 FIM = 0,19 USD) for
night shifts (from 22.00 to 06.00) and FIM 4.30 for evening shifts (from 14.00 to 22.00).
Engineering industry workers are paid double time for Sunday work.
Tamrock's new work schedule including a permanent day
shift on Saturdays involves no changes in the length of each individual's normal working
week, Pentti Niittymäki emphasises.
Flexibility reassessed
Helsinki (Peter J. Boldt - 26.02.1998) ... "The
idea that the Finnish labour market is especially inflexible and that this is the reason
for the high unemployment rate in Finland and elsewhere in the European Union continues
stubbornly in common currency.
The OECD and its economic policy section have long been a
centre for this mode of thinking. The "Jobs Study" of a few years ago reached
the conclusion that the only way to reduce unemployment would be to repeal legislation and
annul agreements made to protect the rights of employees. These theses have been repeated
in the OECD's Economic Outlook every six months and have usually commanded wide media
attention in Finland as well as in other countries."
... "In contrast the OECD's other publication, the
annual Employment Outlook, has seldom been the subject of comment in the Finnish press.
This may be due to the fact that it comes out in July when most Finns are on holiday.
However, Employment Outlook has an interesting approach.
The 1996 and 1997 reports systematically analyse the main arguments for flexibility and
investigate whether or not international statistics support the assumptions made by the
economists.
Rising income differentials and, above all, reductions in
the wages of the lowest paid sector hardly increase employment. What they do increase is
social inequality.
A reduction in the starting salaries of young people
barely diminishes youth unemployment. In Finland an experimental project created, instead
of tens of thousands, only a handful of new jobs.
Neither does accelerating labour force rotation, i.e.
making dismissal easier, create new jobs or lower unemployment.
The statistics do not justify the continuous insistence of
OECD economists for decentralisation of the collective bargaining system.
It is thus no wonder that participants in the Finnish
discussion so seldom refer to the OECD Employment Outlook, a publication that openly casts
doubt on generally accepted ideas.
Within the OECD itself, Employment Outlook has, however,
had some impact. The Economic Outlook published in December 1997 is not as eagerly in
favour of decentralisation of the negotiation system as it used to be and no longer
declares the virtues of flexibility with eye-catching point sizes.
The results of the OECD's Employment Outlook do not
surprise those who are well aware of the real behaviour of the labour market and human
beings."
(Excerpts are from SAK's monthly Palkkatyöläinen,
published 03.02.1998)
Drivers strike ends in clear victory
Helsinki (13.02.1998 - Juhani Artto) It took a
week for the Greater Helsinki area bus, tram and underground drivers to prevail in their
strike about their rights on privatised transport routes.
According to the new agreement, a company which is successful in bidding for routes will
be obliged to hire workers sacked by the company which lost the route if the successful
company needs more drivers.
In such cases the driver will hired as an
established employee retaining almost all accumulated social benefits. This rule will
apply to the pay scale, the length of annual leave, the level of compensation for sick
leave and the terms of dismissal.
The unions and two private bus operators
made a separate agreement on pension rights. According to this agreement, any drivers
whose pension benefits would be reduced or pension age raised in the event of transfer to
a successful bidder would be among the last to be dismissed from the unsuccessful company.
Opinion polls showed that an exceptionally
high proportion of Greater Helsinki area residents, 80 per cent, supported the drivers
cause in the dispute, even though the strike badly affected those without private cars.
Another factor that inclined the employers
towards reaching a quick resolution of the dispute was the imminent threat of sympathy
strikes in the railway and air transport sectors.
The Labour Court ordered the unions to pay
360,000 Finnish marks (1 FIM = 0,19 USD) in fines for illegal strikes.
Union representatives emphasised that the
agreement reached would be the starting point for corresponding negotiations in other
sectors. The employers negotiators stressed the opposite by saying that the solution is
specially tailored only for the Greater Helsinki area.
Two Swedish companies, Linjebuss and
Swebus, have been so successful in bidding that they now control 73 per cent of privatised
routes. Linjebuss is owned by the major French conglomerate Compagnie Général des Eaux
(CGEA), a company which, according to the Finnish net magazine Duuni, is seeking by its
aggressive marketing strategy to become the global number one bus operator.
Swebus is owned by the Scottish company
Stagecoach Holdings (SCH).
Markku Haavisto, CEO of Linjebuss Finland,
says that his company plans to capture a significant market share primarily of local
routes in the largest urban centres. In Europe, CGEA already operates more than 10,000
buses.
Drivers strike to keep benefits on
privatised transport routes
Helsinki (06.02.1998 - Juhani Artto) About 3,300 bus, tram
and underground train drivers launched a strike in the Greater Helsinki area on Monday.
The dispute concerns the rights of drivers working on privatized transport routes.
A few years ago the Metropolitan Area local authorities
called for tenders from private transport companies for the right to operate services on
certain bus routes. This year the City of Helsinki is adopting the practice of its
neighbours and on some routes a second round of tendering between the bus companies is
already under way.
The drivers are opposed to the idea of their employers,
whereby companies which are successful in bidding for routes may hire drivers without
respecting their accumulated service benefits. This approach by the employers threatens to
reduce the incomes, social benefits and job security of the workforce.
Negotiations continued for more than half a year before
the strike was called. Of the Greater Helsinki area public transport system only local
trains and a few private bus lines are not on strike. As usual in Finnish strikes, there
are no strikebreakers and the employers make no effort to hire them. Instead, they have
described the strike as illegal and have filed suit against the striking unions.
The unions involved in the strike are those of the
transport and municipal workers.
Competition for bus routes has made the companies more
cost-conscious. Cost savings have been as high as 30 per cent according to the
Metropolitan Area Coordination Council. However, costs have stabilized following the first
round of tenders.
The labour costs of successful companies make up about
half of average total costs while fuel and maintenence account for another quarter and
investments for the remaining quarter.
At the end of the fifth day of the strike the parties were
a long way from any compromise that might resolve the dispute.
The union representatives stress the importance of the
principle which they are defending. Employees in many other sectors will face similar
threats if the Greater Helsinki area drivers fail in their present struggle.
Unemployment Fell Slowly Last Year
Helsinki (03.02.1998 - Juhani Artto) On average last year
there were 45,000 more jobs for wage and salary earners than in 1996. The number of
unemployed workers fell by 33,000.
The unemployment rate in 1997 was 14.5 per cent, compared
with 15.8 per cent in 1996. The unemployment rate was 14.0 per cent for men and 15.0 per
cent for women. There was a slight easing of serious youth unemployment. In 1997 the rate
was 26.8 per cent, compared with 28.1 per cent in 1996.
The main figures of the 1997 labour force study conducted
by Statistics Finland are as follows:
Employed wage and salary earners 1 845
000
of whom:
- process industry 540
000
-
services
1 264 000
- other
sectors
41 000
Self-employed and their
families 323 000
Unemployed
367 000
Among those aged between 15 and 74 years, 1.3 million
people were outside of the labour force. This figure includes 88,000 people in so-called
hidden unemployment. Of these, 18,000 were not actively seeking work because they
considered the search to be hopeless.
Record Fines Levied on
Striking Paperworkers' Unions
Helsinki (30.01.1998 - Juhani Artto) The
Labour Court has ordered the Paperworkers Union and 53 of its 73 local branches to pay
heavy fines for strikes which took place last September. The fines amount to 633,000
Finnish marks (1 FIM = 0,19 USD).
The paperworkers called a series of
strikes in support of 54 maintenance workers at the tissue paper mill of Nokia Paper Oy,
which is owned by the U.S.-based multinational James Fort. (See our story
"Subcontracting - a hot issue" published 10.10.1997). The workers insisted on
working under the collective agreement applicable to the paper industry, instead of that
of the metalworking sector to which, as a result of outsourcing, their employer ABB
Service belongs.
The strikes forced the employers initially
to accede to the workers' demands on an interim basis. This was later made permanent in
December, when renegotiated as part of a comprehensive incomes policy agreement. (See our
story "New two-year collective agreement for almost all employees" published
19.12.1997)
In spite of the heavy fines, the
Paperworkers Union and its local branches emerged as clear winners in the dispute. A
defeat in the conflict at Nokia Paper would have cleared the way for accelerated
outsourcing in all industries, irrespective of the views of organised labour.
Managers take more than their share
Helsinki (19.01.1998 - Juhani Artto) The CEOs of the
largest Finnish companies enjoyed generous salary rises amounting to 44 per cent between
1990 and 1996. Over the same period the gross income of ordinary full-time wage earners
and salaried staff grew by 21 per cent.
These figures are from a report compiled by journalists
Tuomo Pietiläinen and Erja Sumanen of the leading Finnish daily newspaper Helsingin
Sanomat and published in the edition of 4th November 1997.
The study compares the job-related incomes of CEOs in the
14 largest Finnish companies listed on the Stock Market. As job-related income the
journalists included salaries, income from option loans given to managers and remuneration
from directorships of other companies.
The fattest pay packet went to Jorma Ollila, CEO of the
telecommunications multinational Nokia. His income in 1996 was 3.3 million Finnish marks
(1 FIM = 0.19 USD). He was closely followed by Vesa Vainio, head of Finland's largest
commercial bank Merita, with an annual income of 3.1 million marks. (Merita was formed in
1995 of SYP and KOP. The general director of SYP made 1.1 million marks in 1990.)
The lowest earner in the top 14 was Aatto Prihti, CEO of
the leading pharmaceutical company Orion, who had to make do with only 1.4 million marks.
The leaders of the companies, which are largely owned by
the State, were not put to shame by those occupying similar positions in the purely
privately-owned sector. Valmet, the world leader in paper machine construction, paid 2.6
million marks to its CEO Matti Sundberg.
The biggest forest industry company UPM-Kymmene considered
its number one, Juha Niemelä, to be worth 1.9 million marks. In 1996 the State-owned
petrochemical complex Neste rewarded its CEO Jaakko Ihamuotila to the tune of 1.8 million
marks.
This rapid growth in the earnings of top leaders follows
an international trend, although the incomes of Finnish managers still lag far behind
those of tycoons in the larger nations, especially the USA.
Almost a third feel physically or
mentally damaged at work
Helsinki (12.01.1998 - Juhani Artto) Almost a third of
Finnish working people believe that their work causes them physical or mental damage. The
conclusion comes from a new study on how Finns assess their own working conditions.
In the study, made by the Institute of Occupational Health, 3,200 Finnish speaking
people aged from 25 to 64 years responded to a thorough questionnaire. Those
interviewed were selected at random from the population register.
A majority experience haste at work rather or very often. In a similar study dating from
1994/95 the proportion of such respondents was 58 per cent. In 1997 this figure was a
little lower at 52 per cent. Those who feel mildly or badly stressed at work represent 14
per cent, which is 3 per cent fewer than three years earlier. Women are slightly more
stressed than men.
More women (42 per cent) than men (38 per cent) regard their workload as mentally very
heavy or rather heavy. One fifth suffer from continuous low morale and a further fifth
from insomnia.
A small minority stated that they have very little or no influence at all on matters
affecting them at work.
There were also questions about physical working conditions. A third suffer from
noise and a minority of seven per cent regard this problem as very bad. Roughly
the same proportion feel that dust is a problem at their workplaces. Solvents are
an inconvenience for one in ten people in working life. Six per cent complain of
cigarette smoke. Almost half suffer from draughty, overheated or cold conditions
at work. 12 per cent consider these problems to be serious.
Finnish working life and commuting between home and work are not free of violence. Over a
12 month period 1.4 per cent of the respondents had been violently attacked, held tightly
or pushed and a further 2.7 per cent had been threatened with violence. There was no
significant gender difference on average but young women were most likely to be
threatened. The worst sectors are those of hotel, catering, health and social services.
Almost 4 per cent complain of being continuosly bullied, discriminated against and
treated in an insulting manner. The problem is greatest among 45-64 year-old women. As
much as 4 per cent of younger women experience sexual harassment. In other female age
groups the rate is 0.8 per cent. Among younger men 0.4 per cent suffer the same fate. The
problem does not affect men over 34 years of age.
Two per cent assess the risk of accident at the workplace as very high, a further 12 per
cent consider it to be rather high and one quarter regard it as moderate.
Fewer than ten per cent regard interpersonal relations at work as problematic or bad.
Nevertheless, 22 per cent feel that the atmosphere is tense. The middle-aged were more
critical than elderly and younger workers. A third consider the atmosphere to be
prejudical and bogged down in old ways.
Nearly 13 per cent of women and 5 per cent of men say that there is gender discrimination
at their workplace. Age discrimination is felt by 6 per cent of the
respondents. This opinion is evenly distributed across various age groups.
A quarter do not believe that they will remain healthy enough to continue in their
present work until retirement.
In spite of many problems and inconveniences, six out of seven respondents are rather or
very satisfied with their present jobs. Only 0.6 per cent are very dissatisfied and a
further 3.3 per cent rather dissatisfied with their jobs.
Short period employees win
pension rights
Helsinki (05.01.1998 - Juhani Artto) Those employed for
less than one month will earn increased pension rights from 1.1.1998. This is due to a law
that took effect at the beginning of the year. Up to the end of last year private
employers were obliged to contribute to pension funds only where employment lasted longer
than one month.
The new regulation does not, however, apply to employees under 23 years of age, nor to
those earning less than FIM 3,650 per year (FIM 1.00 = USD 0.19).
The reform is a result of pressure exerted by the trade unions.
Employers began to favour short period employment during the slump in the Finnish economy
in the early 1990s. Some of them deliberately reduced their social contributions by
artificially dividing employment into short periods.
Short period employment is most common in the hotel and catering, commercial and cleaning
sectors. Educational institutions and the public sector also use short period employment.
The role of private employment companies has expanded rapidly in the labour market as
various forms of non-typical employment have become common. More than 400,000 workers in
Finland, one sixth of those in working life, are in short period, fixed period or other
non-typical employment.
The Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union has campaigned for the reform since
the early 1990s. The president of the union, Jorma Kallio, observes that 80 per
cent of new recruits in the hotel and catering sector go into short period or fixed period
employment, and only 20 per cent into full-time, continuous employment.
Kallio emphasizes that short period employment is not entirely beneficial to employers,
since it adds to the costs of staff training and undermines the loyalty of employees to
the employer.
The central trade union organisation SAK runs a special project to provide essential
information to those in short period jobs. The project has a nationwide toll-free
telephone number. |
