News in Brief
(April 2000)
Basic labour legislation under review
Finns prefer collective agreements
Election time for the Metal Workers and the Chemical Workers
The Finnish Post is delivering unemployment
Economic growth continues
The earnings gap widens
A tougher labour market—for women
Trade union recruitment of new media workers
Basic labour legislation under review
The Contracts of Employment Act, which forms the basis of Finnish labour legislation, is currently under review. This Act safeguards the essential rights and obligations of the employee in the world of work. From the perspective of the trade union movement, the most important aspect of this review would be the clarification of the terms on which collective agreements are deemed to be generally binding. When a collective agreement is generally binding, it means that the terms of the collective agreement must also be honoured by those employers who are not members of any employers' organisation. Another factor is that when an agreement is generally binding it ensures that all employers face the same competition. Lauri Ihalainen, the President of SAK, the Finnish Central Organisation of Trade Unions, in talking about this review, has said that it will lead to fair play, as the same rules will be applied to all. The reviewed Contracts of Employment Act will prohibit any unreasonable use of short-term employment, and the misuse of this by the practice of linking together a chain of successive short term contracts. The newly reviewed Act will also guarantee that improved rights are granted to agency workers. The Act is currently being deliberated by the Government and is expected shortly to be debated in Parliament. The new Contracts of Employment Act will, in all probability, come into force early next year.
Finns prefer collective agreements
Over 80 per cent of Finns are of the opinion that the minimum terms of employment should be based on collective agreements, as the individual employee is unable to negotiate his own pay on an equal footing with the employer. A similar percentage consider that all employers should apply the same minimum terms to their employees, regardless of whether or not the employer is a member of the employers' federation in his sector of industry. The self-employed and other entrepreneurs are in agreement with this.
In general, it is thought that workers who are engaged in the same work should be entitled to the same minimum terms of employment, regardless of whether they are permanent employees or agency workers.
The above information was gathered from the results of a survey which was carried out on behalf of SAK.
Most of those who are in employment in Finland, work in a sector of industry which has in force a generally binding collective agreement. About 80 per cent of all employees are unionised and an almost equally high percentage of all employers are members of their respective federations.
Election time for the Metal Workers and the Chemical Workers
Union elections have been held during this spring by both the Finnish Metal Workers' Union and the Chemical Workers' Union. Both of these unions will hold their respective Congress in the summer, and therefore the necessity arose to choose the delegates. The members of both unions were keen to cast their votes. The voting level of the Chemical Workers' Union reached 62 per cent whilst the Metal Workers' Union was not too far behind with a turnout of 51 per cent.
These rates were high, in comparison with union elections in general. Normally less than 50% of the members of any trade union take the trouble to vote at all.
The Social Democrats retained their majority, amongst the elected delegates, within both the Metal Workers' and the Chemical Workers' Union. The Left Wing Alliance delegates took 2nd place.
The SAK affiliated Metal Workers' Union has some 170,000 members and the Chemical Workers' Union 35,000.
The Finnish Post is delivering unemployment
Within the next year the Finnish postal service will close 257 post offices, meaning job losses for some 1500 people. On completion of these closures, there will be a mere 300 main post offices remaining. Sub-post offices, to be run by private agents, will be opened in kiosks, and within shops and garages.
Finland is now in its seventh consecutive year of continuous economic growth, and financial analysts have been forced to correct their forecasts as figures have reached even higher levels than those which had been expected. The Financial Research Centre, Pellervo, has for example recently forecast that the national gross product will grow by five per cent in the current year. For next year it has forecast economic growth of 3.5 per cent, an unemployment rate of 9.2 per cent and an inflation rate of 2.4 per cent. The rate of unemployment is at present slightly over 10 per cent, whilst inflation is running at a little over 3.0 per cent.
When compared with 1997, the gap in earnings between households widened in Finland in 1998. During the same period, purchasing power increased by an average of 5.0 per cent. The earnings increase was of greater benefit to those in the higher income brackets than it was to the lower earning workers.
Purchasing power was increased by both earned and unearned income. The increase was mostly derived from taxable sales profits and from dividends.
A tougher labour market—for women
According to a reliable statistical source, the position of women on the Finnish labour market worsened during the 1990's recession. During these years, female unemployment rose to the same level as that of males. There has been an increase, particularly in women's occupations, of the use of both part-time working and short term contracts. Since then, most new vacancies have arisen in those sectors which are male dominated. The unemployment rate among women at the end of the 1990's was thus higher than that of men.
The use of short term contracts became increasingly common for women in the 1990's. In 1998, some 20 per cent of women were employed on short term contracts, against a figure of 15 per cent for men.
Trade union recruitment of new media workers
The SAK affiliated, Communication Workers' Union, has commenced the recruitment of members from the ranks of those who work in new media occupations such as the employees of communication and advertising agencies, consultants, and also layout designers working for newspapers and magazines. The new media is a growing sector, and one of particular interest to younger men. There are numerous new media colleges in the different regions of Finland.
The Communication Workers' Union has 30,000 members, the majority of whom work in printing and in the delivery of newspapers and magazines.
