In past decades, in particular in the 1970s, labour legislation was developed considerably in Finnish society. Working life was then reformed so extensively that, now, legislative reforms are aimed essentially at patching up the leaking ship. The uncertainty of working life, atypical employment contracts, the speculative use of manpower and structural transformation of businesses coupled with the "disappearance" of employers’ liability are the major problems faced by working life which call for gaps in legislation to be filled.

The Finnish wage-earners’ organisations have been particularly concerned about the high level of unemployment prevailing in the country, the lack of skilled labour, marginalisation and about mental and physical stress. The organisations have sought to have a concrete effect on the development of working life. In the last agreement on incomes policy, they sought to bind Finnish employers to implement good personnel and employment policy and to good practices in work communities. Through the development of working life, the union movement has endeavoured to have an impact on employees’ expertise, security in the face of change, employees’ ability to cope at work and genuine gender equality. The organisations’ joint programme declaration has been aimed at obtaining answers to many current problems faced by individuals, and to the challenges of the future. One basic problem is how to secure the availability of manpower as the number of people of working age declines now that the children of the baby boom years are entering retirement.

I would like here to focus on two aspects. The number of atypical jobs in Finland has risen to account for a quarter of all job relationships, and the majority of new jobs are atypical. The disintegration of normal employment relationships has intensified during the 1990s. Manpower is used in the service-oriented information society more flexibly than before. The networked, new production model has sought new approaches. In the network economy oriented towards small businesses, working hours and the employment relationship have to bend. The workforce adjusts by means of fixed-term contracts, part-time work, teleworking and home-based employment, and by hiring out employment relationships. People who are summoned separately to work and who perform work independently are also losers who are denied the benefits of a normal employment relationship.

Atypical work generates general uncertainty among those who carry it out and results in a loss of control over their lives. Whereas the basic aim is for the risks associated with work to be shared between employers and employees by means of legislation, in work of this kind the risks have been shifted onto the employee. Atypical work has considerable effects on society and on trade union policy: society’s tax accrual is reduced, the financial base of social security disintegrates and lobbying by the union movement is made more difficult. Publicly acceptable principles for the utilisation of the workforce must be created. In Finland, the Contracts of Employment Act Committee set up by the Council of State is examining the problems involved in atypical work and the need for amendments to legislation. Gradual improvements to atypical work have been implemented in recent years by raising the unit price of atypical work to that of normal work.

Successful companies have realised the significance of personnel to their success. These companies have understood the importance of job permanence and security to personnel commitment and to the results obtained by work communities.

Another point which I would particularly like to raise is the strategy adopted by the union movement for dealing with the challenges thrown up by the information society. We are in the midst of post-industrial development, in which the latest technology is releasing jobs from industry and services. The production structure of industry is moving towards more advanced technology and increased demands for expertise. Manual labour and physical job performances are declining and the content of work is increasingly involving the control and programming of technology. Expertise of this kind stresses requirements on professional knowledge and skills based on training and education. The information society is bringing continuous change to working life, emphasising lifelong learning, a high level of expertise and the upkeep of professional skill. Only this also serves those strategies for national survival according to which productivity and competitiveness can be maintained by means of technological innovations, by developing the contents and organisation of work and by reforming management and production models. To this end, we need working life development programmes, which have been implemented successfully in Finland and which are aimed at positive processes of change within companies and the associated security.