According to a survey conducted by STTK, the Finnish Confederation of Salaried Employees, there is no lack of openings for employee (in Finnish: palkansaaja) representatives. Only 18 percent of respondents to the survey state that they would be prepared to take on employee representative responsibilities. At the same time, 90 percent of respondents that already are employee representatives state that they would be prepared to continue with such tasks. The Secretary General of STTK, Leila Kostiainen, says that the survey shows that the overall situation with employee representatives at workplaces is rather good with 80 percent of respondents stating that there is an employee representative or similar person at their company.
What worries Kostiainen, though, is that 16 percent have answered that there is no employee representative at their company. In the private sector, nearly every fourth workplace is missing such a position. Additionally, only about half of the respondents say that the work done by trade unions to develop and better salaries, working hours and the standard of working is visible at their company. Kostiainen raises the question of how these matters are agreed upon at such companies. STTK has emphasized that local negotiations can succeed only if both negotiating sides are balanced.
It’s difficult to extend local negotiations if there’s a lack of employee representatives or if they are not given the opportunity to do their work properly, states Kostiainen. According to the survey men, who represent 24 percent of the respondents, are more willing to be employee (in Finnish: palkansaaja) representatives than women, who represent 16 percent of the respondents. Young people are slightly more willing than people over 50 years of age. The size of a company or the sector the company is in does not seem to have an impact on whether a person is willing to be an employee representative or not.
No comments:
Post a Comment