People took part in an anti-racism demonstration in Helsinki on 19 July 2023. The Finnish government has laid out plans to restrict the right to strike and make terminating employees easier for employers, prompting trade unions to start preparing for action. (Emmi Korhonen – Lehtikuva)
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A NUMBER of Finnish trade unions have indicated in recent days that they are preparing for a confrontation with the government of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP), reports YLE.
The government has put forward significant changes to the legislation on industrial action and employment contracts, prompting trade unions to describe them as an “egregious assault against fundamental employee protections”.
It is expected to present a bill that would impose a maximum duration of one day on political strikes and rein in sympathy strikes by stipulating that they must to be proportionate to the goals and their impacts must limited to the parties to the labour dispute. After implementing the reforms, it is expected to take action to increase local bargaining, make it easier for employers to terminate staff and exclude workplaces with 50 or fewer staff from the scope of the co-operation act.
Although the revisions are discussed at tripartite task forces, the government has consistently messaged that it intends to move forward with the proposals with or without the backing of trade unions.
YLE on Wednesday wrote that the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) announced last week it is raising its readiness, prompting a similar announcement this week from the Trade Union of Education (OAJ).
OAJ, the public broadcasting company reported, is especially concerned about the plan to prohibit the national conciliator from exceeding the wage increases agreed on in export-dominated industries. The plan has provoked protests particularly in female-dominated, low paid industries.
The Finnish Industrial Union on Wednesday declared that it will begin preparing for “organisational measures” against the government.
“All measures are on the table. We haven’t ruled out any measures,” Riku Aalto, the chairperson of the Finnish Industrial Union, stated to YLE. “We’ll be coordinating very carefully with other unions and confederations on what kind of measures we’re ready to take.”
One of the key concerns for the roughly 200,000-member union is the proposal to amend the justified grounds for termination from proper and weighty to simply proper.
Aalto indicated that trade unions are gearing up for a fight despite the fact that they are represented in the tripartite task forces because the task forces have not engaged in genuine discussion.
“The government has already under the guidance of businesses drafted its own provisions, and our possibilities to influence the provisions are very limited. No trilateral negotiations in the traditional sense are underway,” he said to YLE.
He nonetheless believes trade unions should not leave the task forces, arguing that they should take any opportunity to have an influence.
Helsingin Sanomat in July highlighted that Finland lost a total of 960,000 workdays to industrial action in 2022, a new high in the 2000s. Jarkko Eloranta, the chairperson at SAK, lamented in an interview with the newspaper that the government appears more interested in tackling the symptoms rather than causes of the labour market problems; instead of promoting tripartite negotiations in order to prevent strikes, it is choosing to limit the right to strike.
The approach taken by the government – to first restrict the right to stage strikes and then push through reforms to employee protections – is “cold-blooded”, he viewed.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
