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Helsinki (19.06.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) Employees at a Finnish company Moventas Gears were told in January that all 635 employees would be temporarily laid off after mandatory consultation with regard to possible temporary lay-offs. Following this consultation the company took the decision to lay off all employees for 2 - 12 weeks.

Moventas Gears produce gears for industry and wind power stations. It has 970 employees, most of them in Finland. The owner of the company is Clyde Blowers, the Scottish industrial engineering group headed by entrepreneur Jim McColl.

The Metalworkers' Union shop steward Janne Rummakko at the Moventas Jyväskylä factory was at a loss to understand what was happening. "Before Christmas we were told that there will be no temporary lay-offs, as there is so much work", he explains to the journalist Aino Pietarinen in an interview for the Palkkatyöläinen magazine of the trade union confederation SAK.

Zero hour employment contract is a contract, where the number of working hours per week is defined between zero and 40. With these contracts, the employee does not know in advance, whether he or she will have work in the near future or not.

Helsinki (12.06.2013- Heikki Jokinen) Could the German labour market model be an example for Finland was the question put forward in a seminar organised by the Trade Union Pro and Metalworkers' Union. "If you want to create social problems I can recommend our model" said visiting speaker, director Wilhelm Adamy from the German trade union confederation DGB.

He pointed out how the creation of mini-jobs and allowing low salaries has caused increasing poverty in spite of economic growth. "The share or proportion of those on low income has also been growing amongst educated people. Lowering pay was expected to stimulate employment opportunities for those with little education or training, but this has not happened."

Helsinki (04.06.13 - Heikki Jokinen) Owners of a Finnish plastics company were handed down prison sentences for work-related human trafficking and aggravated embezzlement. The Ostrobothnia District Court sentenced the two owners to 2 years and 6 months in prison. They also have to pay more than 200,000 euros in compensation for embezzlement.

This all began in 2004 when the Vietnamese born couple established their own subcontracting company in the small town of Nykarleby and agreed with their employer to take responsibility for some of the factory work. The workers arrived from Vietnam and were related to the owner couple. Many of them were farm workers and illiterate.

JHL (29.05.2013- Heikki Jokinen) The Finnish government is planning to cut the budget of all research institutes under the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health by up to 30 million euro in 2015. This will affect the National Institute for Health and Welfare, the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority and the Social Insurance Institution Kela.

JHL oppose the planned cuts. "The government is cutting back on public research and this will mean job losses for hundreds of people", said JHL head of bargaining, Kristian Karrasch, as he took part in a demonstration against the cuts in front of the Finnish parliament. "If the decision is put into practice it will mean dismissals of hundreds of competent and dedicated employees and wreck high quality research."

Helsinki (28.05.2013 - Juhani Artto / Heikki Jokinen) The publisher of Trade Union News from Finland is about to change. Heikki Jokinen will take over responsibility for the publication as of the 29 May 2013. Jokinen steps in for Juhani Artto who first established the newsletter in 1997 and has acted as publisher ever since. Artto will continue to serve as co-publisher up until the end of 2013, the post Jokinen has held from January-May 2013.

(27.05.2013 - Link to the web site of Yle News)

Helsinki (21.05.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) Working life in Finland has taken a turn for the better in the last three years according to a general study on Finnish working life, published a week ago by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health FIOH. The study is based on telephone interviews with some 3,000 people and is conducted every three years.

The good news is that the employment rate of people over 55 years of age is now higher. People are more willing to continue working longer, later in life. In 2006, 58 per cent of employed people aged at least 45 were considering continuing work after they reached the lowest possible retirement age of 63, now the percentage is 74.

JHL (15.05.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) JHL is taking an active part in a project to help unemployed trade union members in a very practical way. Two working life coaches will provide individual guidance on how to find and apply for a job. Some 30 unemployed people from the Helsinki region and Uusimaa province will be taken on as customers in the first stage. The goal is to find either a job or some sort of training or education for each person.

The coaches will first sit down with the customer and try to establish the situation at hand: what are the customers own wishes and needs, is the CV up-to-date, are the applications appropriate and is the person eligible for the government supported salary scheme.

Helsinki (15.05.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) Recent measures taken by Nokia have prompted many people to ask whether it is using other companies to do its dirty work when it comes to firing employees. "There is a pattern where employees are outsourced with some part of the business to another company, which will then quickly fire them on the grounds of re-organising production. One has to ask whether redundancy has become a business", says Maria Löfgren, director of Akava, the Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff.