OECD published new tool for measuring the quality of life

In recent years there has been plenty of discussion about the quality of life. One of the topics has been comparing and measuring the life quality by country to country. Previously used GDP value (initials standing for Gross Domestic Product) has been criticized of being too narrow and unsuitable for the modern world, where sociological and economical (in Finnish, talous) values are different than during the years of industrialization.

For this demand OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development helping to stimulate economic progress and world trade for its’ member countries, has developed a new tool for measuring the quality of life called “Better Life Index”. There are eleven different, measurable variables that make possible to compare countries quality of life to each other, for example environment, safety, education and health. The new index is not meant to override the GDP but to broaden the comparison by using different values.

The new meter is not just for nice statistic. The strong movements in Europe and North Africa at 2011 could have been foreseen, if there would have been more wider measuring system than previously used GDP. The quality of life is strongly related to the need of change, and probably in these countries the new index would have give a hint of what was coming.

Since established in 1961, the OECD has had a goal to help the leaders of countries to plan and foresee the actions that could be used in helping the welfare of the citizens of that country. The OECD is considered neutral and expert organization in its field, so their measuring tools are more easily widely accepted.

The new measuring tool needs more testing and final adjustment before it is completely ready, but it can already serve for comparison between the countries – and can give important information about the movements and feelings related to the quality of life.

Inflation requires higher wages

According to the committee that follows the development of income and expenses in Finland, the economic growth in Finland will head up over four percent of what it was last year. The committee’s judgment is that there will be growth in economy (in Finnish, talous) during this year and next, even tough there are differences between the different field of industries.

The growth of economy will facilitate from the domestic demands, when the private consumption and investments will grow. The export will grow also, but the fastest growth stage is over already.

The concern of employees is that the wages are not following the growth of expenses. It has been estimated that next year the growth of expenses will be 2,7 percent – and this estimate do not include the option of raising the incident taxes, which would accelerate the elevation of prices even more. More accurate estimate would be that at next year the expenses will raise three percent.

The reason for the inflation now is mainly the raise of energy and food prices. Most of this is due to the international situation, for example the consequence of oil pricing and food getting ore expensive due to the larger consumption level, but some parts of uprising prices come from domestic actions, like the raises of different taxes.

The Finnish Confederation of Professionals STTK, one of the three trade union confederations (in Finnish, ay-liike) in Finland, sees that when expenses are getting higher, the wages of employees should follow. At the moment the competitive edge of Finnish companies is high, which gives the possibility to raise wages.

The need of raising wages puts extra pressure for the negation of collective terms of work at autumn 2011. In order to interfere with even bigger regression the wage earning persons (in Finnish, palkansaaja) should be kept with a high purchasing power.

There are estimates also that the unemployment rate in Finland will get smaller during the next two years. However there are lots of long term unemployed, whose possibilities to get back to the working life are getting smaller and smaller. For this group of people actions should be planned actively, especially for those under 30 years of old.

Welfare services should be taken care for in Finland

The Finnish Confederation of Professionals STTK, one of the three trade union confederations in Finland, is worried about welfare services in Finland at the times of regression.

STTK appreciates that the treasury of Finland do not plan any more budget cutbacks than planned in the new government program. However, the government program is including balancing actions that are maybe not timed right, as the regression may bring down the trust of employees (in Finnish, palkansaaja). It is important f to have the employees’ believe for the future supported.

The biggest worry in the governmental program for STTK is how the cutbacks proposed will affect in the local communities’ capacity of arranging quality services for all Finns equally. STTK proposes that in this moment of regression, it would be advisable to settle the cutbacks for al longer interval. This would give the local communities more time to accommodate themselves to this situation of regression.

The government’s plans of investing of taking care of the young persons’ unemployment and interfere with their marginalization are necessary actions from STTK’s point of view. Still STTK would like to see more actions from government for balancing the financing situation of Finland and increasing the employment rate. For example persons who are partly capable to work should have the possibility of working according their own skills.

The plans for making the taxation more equal for lower earning persons and elevating labor market subsidies are justified according to STTK. These actions would facilitate the people who are in a weaker position.

The thing outside the employee issues that worries STTK is the cutbacks of the budgets for the police. STTK sees that is more than important to feel safe in this kind of moments of the history, and cutting the budget of the police force will not help for this.

There are estimates giving understanding that in Finland, the resurrection of the Finnish economic growth will fasten this year even more than four percent. The government’s actions should aim on balancing the situation and keeping up the faith of employees, not making them worried and therefore accelerate the fall.

Marketing and communication is the wild west in terms of work

The terms of employment are widely unknown and not so often followed in the field of advertising, media, digital media and marketing research. Almost half of the employers in this field do not follow any kind of collective agreement on terms of work.

New salary recommendations for these marketing and communication field were published in 2011. More than half of employees (in Finnish, palkansaaja) working in advertising agencies, digital media agencies or marketing research organizations in Finland felt, that recommendation of salaries were useful or very useful regarding their position. Already third of the employees took advantage of these recommendations when negotiating about their salaries.

Characteristic for these fields of industries is that only third of the employers knew about the salary recommendations. The same goes with the framework agreement for the terms of work. There are terms of work for the industries that do not have their own collective agreement yet, but they are rarely used in marketing and communications.

The hope of the employees is to get field-specific collective agreements in these industries. This would, however, require more organized actions by employee’s side. At the moment the employees in marketing and communications tend to get interested of their rights and possibilities only when the employer cuts their benefits.

There are no employee representatives in half of the work places – or at least the employees do not know, whether this person exists or not. Still more than 70 percent of employees would like to have employee representative in their work place.

It is not only for the good of employees to get collective agreement for the terms of work, or have employee representative in the work place or follow salary recommendations. The employer who follows collective agreement and salary recommendations does not need to negotiate the salary or the terms of work individually with every employee - and employee representatives are useful for both parties in the moments of change, which are more than common in the fields of advertising agencies, digital media agencies or marketing research.

The recommendation of salaries for the fields of advertising, media research and digital media in Finland were published by the Finnish Federation of Special Service and Clerical Employees ERTO, a labor union (in Finnish, ay-liike) of employees working in expert positions in the private service sector, together with the MaMA Ry, which is the organization for marketing and communications specialist, researchers and specialist of the digital media in 2011.

Age discrimination in Finnish working life

In work-life, the age discrimination of over 50 year old administrative and clerical employees (in Finnish toimihenkilö) is more common than is generally thought. This is revealed in a study that the Trade Union Pro, which is the union that represents employed workers in Finland. The study was done in 2011.

According to the study, over 55 year old unemployed respondents thought their possibilities to get a new job were poor. Only 6 % of the same age group believed they had a good possibility to get a new job.

In order to succeed in the competition of the employment markets, mature employees need to update their knowhow with supplementary courses. In many cases this possibility is taken away from them, because employers do not want to provide further training for older employees. The study shows that employees over 50 years old are having very little or no possibilities for supplementary courses.

It is not that these employees would not like to have further training: Four out of ten unemployed respondents over 55 years old felt they need to update their knowhow in order to succeed among younger coworkers. Every second person of the same age group has not had any supplementary courses in their working place. This proves that the companies do not see benefits on training mature employees: it is seen more important to educate younger personnel than mature.

Lack of further training

This lack of further training causes problems for mature employees (in Finnish palkansaaja) cumulatively when layoffs are being made. If there has not been the possibility to keep up with development in the specific area of industry, the possibility to get laid off is naturally bigger.

On top of that, the Finnish legal system supports layoffs for more mature employees. When employee over 57 year old is given notice, they are allowed to have earnings-related unemployment allowance until the age of retirement. In Finnish this is called “eläkeputki”, translated roughly as “retirement funnel”.

The study proves that even though the mature administrative and clerical employees would like to continue their working career, they are being laid off since they have the possibility to get into the retirement funnel. As the younger employees do not have similar options, it is often seen fairer by employers to lay off mature ones. The main idea behind this attitude is to lessen the losses of all parties, but this definitely puts more mature employees in an unfair position during layoffs.

All in all, employees over 50 years old don’t have the same opportunities and possibilities in the work-life as younger employees have. The discussion of postponing the age of retirement is ridiculous, if it is compared to the study: how could any career path be longer, if employers do not have the will to make it longer?

Over 40 years old are already facing problems in employment in Finland

According to the study the Trade Union Pro, which represents employed workers in Finland, administrative and clerical employees (in Finnish: toimihenkilö) who are over 40 years old are facing serious problems in their re-employment.

The study shows how the possibilities for unemployed administrative and clerical employees to get a new job decreases strongly after 40 years of age. The decrease is even stronger when the employee gets to the age of 50. The study reveals that from unemployed administrative and clerical employees who were over 55 years old, only 6 % believed they have a good possibility to get a new job. Six out of ten felt that their possibilities of getting a job were poor – on a scale of 4-10 they gave to their possibilities the lowest possible rate. Compared to the unemployed administrative and clerical employees under 45 years old of age, 25 % of under 45 years old rated their possibilities of getting a new job as good. It is not big percent either, but it is definitely more than with over 55 year old.

Finnish Trade Union Pro in 2011

This trend might raise a national-economy problem. In order to rehabilitate the national economy, the government of Finland has a plan to extend a person’s career by postponing the age of retirement. At the same time when the government supports longer career paths, the study shows that employers are not seeing the similar benefit of giving or keeping older employees. The diverse fields of the respondents also proves that this problem is not only affecting one field of the economy, but reflects the wider opinion of employees (in Finnish, palkansaaja) in Finland.

The research was based on a questionnaire conducted by the Finnish Trade Union Pro in 2011. The questionnaire was sent to trade union members, and the answers were gathered from 5421 members who were over 50 years old. Respondents were working in the fields of industry, services, ICT, communication and finance.