How does our working life look like in 2025?

Working life as we know it is changing rapidly. People are finding 9 to 5 working days to be tuff and reducing their productivity. 9 to 5 working days originate from far back but are still reasonable due to the regular office hours.

Working life in 2025 is almost impossible to predict. What are our values, what does the next generation bring us, what sort of working day and technology do we have then?

Technology might be the key factor when pondering the future working life. Are we just sitting in our homes, doing everything through computing power. Everything being done by robots that we control through computers. I doubt it. That would be in no-ones interest.There will be a lot of automated actions done by computers, but in 2025 there will also be 8 billion people living on this planet. That requires some real muscle ache as well.

It is estimated that the amount of women in management professions are to increase drastically. Africa, Asia, Europe - all over the world women are more willing to take the stand and start managing. This brings a spice of it’s own when thinking about working life in 2025.

STTK has a big role in painting the sky of the Finnish working life in 2025. STTK is part of coming up with the frame-agreement - that determines how our working life will look like.

Working life in 2025 will most likely be a perfect mixture of augmented reality, remote working, locally produced food and a lot of community actions. Many tasks are done by cloud- driven communities by crowd sourcing techniques. Crowd sourcing is a big part of modern 2025 working life community and tasks are made a whole lot easier due to the huge brainpower being available on line.

Salaries and economy are closely tied to nature resources meaning that working life and the e conomy are in fact for the first time in harmony with nature. New technologies are working to produce a lot of solar energy which in 2025 is the main energy source.

Some rewarded remote managers are watching out for the employees (in Finnish: palkansaaja) from UK and the Finnish employees can have their lunch break by pausing the activities they are doing and playing some traditional Finnish lunch music while Indian engineers are correcting their work. See you soon 2025.

More work

How does more work get created? Everyone is talking about creating new jobs and that hopes are high on the good amount of start-ups and new innovations that are entering the markets. Rovio is now employing hundreds of employees (in Finnish: palkansaaja) and every start-up should be like Rovio. Not to make any profit but employ great number of people and keep on growing.

How does more work get created in a company like Rovio? It gets created by need - naturally. The need comes from a company, its key personnel and investors finding certain tasks to be not in their field of expertise. These tasks need a person who is dedicated to the task and is willing to take this task and fulfil it to its greatest potential. When this person is found, the task becomes formally part of the business. It has to be included in the strategy and has to be considered when the next board meeting takes place.

Who decides when the empty whole should be filled? Well - usually it is the CEO that makes the decision, especially in smaller companies. But how it goes usually is that CEO creates a working round for the task so that all ‘free’ employees can try to manage the task and then when it is found to be too hard the hole is being filled with a new employee.

Who would really hire an Investment Director to a start-up. No-one.

 

Jobs are created through success. Success isn’t that easy, though. There should be more incentives for growth and success. A company should be able to try and fail without getting hammered. By taking a risk of hiring an employee to a start-up, the entrepreneur commits to a greater risk than he/she will, probably for the rest of the company’s lifeline. It is not only very, very expensive to hire an employee, it is also a big commitment. Labour unions and STTK are great places to find help and answers to questions regarding employment. Hiring an employee might be the best thing that happens to you and it also might be one of the worst things that happen to you. Either way you should always aim in creating more work because that is what is keeping our economy rolling.

Productivity is Gone

Everyone is talking about productivity. It seems to be the new black when talking about working morales, business hours or even showing up at work vs. doing work from home.

Productivity and flexibility should not be mixed. Productivity is the indicator of the amount of actual result oriented work is being done by someone. That has got nothing to do with remote working or doing well at work. Of course, everything is related to each other. Usually people who are not feeling good at their workplaces tend to be unproductive, too.

Productivity is also being measured in a more serious way. In a way that indicates the dark years ahead. At the moment we are approximately 13% below the targets on productivity regarding EVA’s survey. This means almost 150 000 ”lost” work hours. Lack of productivity can always be seen in the profitability of companies. Productivity therefore reflects many parts of society and can even be seen affecting pensions. Something should be done. Biggest ‘firefighters’ here are the labor unions. STTK frame agreement did well and is steering our economy towards the right track again.

We should work our hard to get our export rolling again. The most important thing is to keep the Finnish costs relatively low, which was made possible for the next couple of years with the frame agreement. However, we should look at, for example, Germany where Angela Merkel managed to get the biggest companies and all the employees to agree on her frame agreement. We should maybe learn something from Angela.

Productivity is so much more than numbers. Productivity is the mental state of a human being. An employee (in Finnish: palkansaaja) finds it hard to be productive when under a constant pressure. Economic crisis may be the trigger for many employees to feel stressed and unsure about the future. All companies should invest in many fields when the economy starts sliding. One of the things should definitely be the people working for the company. The cost of first letting personnel go and then re-hiring when the economy kicks in is enormous. It also has a great impact on the atmosphere at work which reflects directly productivity.

Local economical crises should be prevented

While municipalities have been able to improve the efficiency of their services, at the same time the government has burden new responsibilities for municipal administrations and its worker (in Finnish, toimihenkilö). This has caused the situation that even municipalities are able to reduce their costs by making their services more efficient, their economical or economic (In Finnish talous) situation is getting worst due to these new responsibilities.

Productivity can be raised to the certain level, but that will not bring the solution for the municipal economical crisis. The solution is neither that functions are transferred to another producer. Tax-funded public services are most likely secure the welfare of citizens in different areas equally. Privately produced services should be used only to supplement the already operating services.

The chairman of Jyty, the Finnish federation of public and private sector employees (in Finnish: palkansaaja), has warned that local government are heading in crisis, which will endanger basic welfare services. There will be most probably heavy shutdowns in many locations.

As the government program states, the municipal policy must be guaranteed equal and quality services throughout the country. The government should now break the old role and together with the municipalities find the ways to address gaps in current services and development the existing resources. It will be challenging, but it might be the only way to ensure the services.

Trade union’s view for the new governmental program

According to STTK, one of the three trade union (in Finnish: ay-liike) confederations in Finland, the key priorities of the new government program are related to fiscal sustainability of national economy and instability caused by euro-zone countries.

STTK is happy with the government’s decisions not to tighten the income taxation of salary earnings. It is the right signal in terms of the employment and purchasing power, and correlates with the goals of STTK. Tax solutions related to the capital taxation are justified by the world economical situation.

However, securing the tax income for the government is crucial in order to keep health facilities and other vital municipal services on a high level of quality and comprehensive manner to all citizens. At the same time, more security should be provided to employers working in these fields: that is essential in terms of employment.

The main task of the current government is, according to STTK, to boost the economic growth and employment. Effective actions to lessen youth and long-term unemployment are necessary. Also the resources for active labor market policies must be enabled. Government should take measures to extend working lives, improve young people's attachment to work, and to prevent work related disabilities.

One of the publicly visible actions in governmental program is to campaign against the grey economy (In Finnish talous). STTK will participate on this campaign also. The campaign will be visible in outdoor advertisements, in police cars and on the Internet in the autumn 2012.

Basic unemployment allowance and the labor market will rise by a hundred dollars per month beginning of next year. The increase also reflects in the earnings-related allowances. This is the government’s way to reduce social inequalities, and therefore is fully supported.

According to STTK, the annual savings and corridor negotiations agreed will ensure a sustainable economic policy. The global economy and the development of the European Union require agility in decision-making.

Municipal consolidations from employer’s side

The consolidation of municipalities in Finland is starting to be everyday news. From big to small, every municipality seems to find a reason to join with neighboring municipalities. Mostly the reason is because savings are seen in merging the municipal administrations, but what will happen to the municipality administrative worker (in Finnish, toimihenkilö) during those consolidations?

At 2005, the government of Finland launched the Best Project (Paras-projekti). The aim of the project was to reform the municipal service structure. Consolidations of municipalities were recognized part of this program. The personnel of municipalities agreed on this project and supported it, which granted them the five year protection against dismissal in the case of any consolidation of municipalities.

The Best Project will end in 2012, but obviously consolidations of municipalities will still happen after that. The trade union of municipal workers has argued that it would be even to have the same five year protection against dismissal also in the consolidations happening after the 2012.

As in any occupation, it is crucial that the job security is maintained. Municipal employment issues are negotiated together with employees and employers' organization, and it is essential that the employees (in Finnish: palkansaaja) remain in spite of the so-called new arrangements.

The other subject of negotiations in the moment of consolidation of municipalities is the salary. When two or more municipalities are combined, the salary differences of similar positions in different municipalities might be considerable. In these cases, the combined municipalities must agree on the harmonization of wages, and the harmonization cannot take a very long time. The same applies to differences in personal knowledge-based bonus systems: they should be co-ordinated.

The marriage between work and know-how

The requirements of working life (in Finnish, työelämä) have changed drastically over the last twenty years. Previously long term engagement with one employee was valued and supported by the employee and employer; nowadays knowhow and continuous development at work are preferred.

This change in the attitude is strongly related to changes in word economy and world market. The technological development has been rapid, and it has created new economic opportunities but also destroyed old ones. The world has transformed from local to global, which has updated the competition at the global level. In this new environment, old skills and old ways to do things need to be re-evaluated.

The change can be seen concentrically in constant layoffs and continuing changes in business plans. For employers, who became accustomed to old ways valuing the long term employee-employer relationship, this new model of running the business have come as a surprise. There are many sad stories of employers getting fired and losing all the meaning in their life. Probably the saddest thing for them is the fact that this trend is here to stay. In the world changing this fast nobody can unfortunately to expect, that one education and one skill will carry through the whole career. The modern employer must study and update his skills all the time.

Unfortunately, many times the employee expects that this development and education is done in employer’s free time and by his own will. Not many employers provide time for their employees to research and development their knowhow. This probably is also due to the fast changes: even the employer has no time to think what it really takes to survive in this changing word.

Many Finnish trade unions have brought up this question and enrolled it to their agenda. Trade unions have long perspective to working life in Finland, and they see the development of employer’s knowhow crucial for the whole Finnish economy. STTK, one of the three trade union confederations in Finland founded in 1946, has mentioned that their new goal is to create the new marriage between work and knowhow, whereas the old marriage was between work and well-being.

The changing world requires new ways to think, for employers, employees and trade unions. The change is never easy, but the only way is to survive.

STTK supports jobs and growth strategy

The Finnish Confederation of Professionals STTK, one of the three trade union confederations in Finland, calls for governmental level agenda for sustainable economic growth and employment. These two are seen vital in order to ensure labor market’s (in Finnish, työmarkkinat) sustainability and functionality.

The central task of this agenda should be to define the economic priorities, and to support the national level competitiveness of companies and purchasing power of wage earners. The program should last for at least the entire life cycle of the current government.

Finnish trade unions have prepared together their agenda for government negations. This agenda includes actions that are meant to response the challenges of the current socio-economic situation. To pick one of the topics as an example, extension of working lives are in the agenda.

In addition to this, all trade unions see that it is reasonable to try to calm the working environment. Constant changes cause uncertainty and feelings of insecure, which is not supporting the ideas of growth. Employers and unions should first find a consensus on how to develop this peace in work environment. In the middle of all structural changes it is necessary to look the causes of any industrial conflicts with new approach. Without this the system is in danger zone.

STTK survey 2011: a lack in employee representatives hinders local negotiations

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.

Survey on European working hours provides input in Finnish discussion

Finnish confederate trade unions feel it is important to include international and European perspectives in discussion about working hours. There are obvious international trends in working hours and arrangements, and it is beneficial to recognize Finland’s situation in comparison to other countries. For this reason, confederate trade unions have arranged a workshop on the topic of working hours to look into Finnish and European working hours.

At the seminar, the Research Director of Eurofond, Greet Vermeylen, comprehensively presented the results for Finland and other EU member countries from the survey conducted by the foundation. The central sources of information for the foundation are the surveys it conducts: the European standard of living survey, the European standard of working survey and the corporate survey.

In the survey conducted by the foundation, topics that were covered were the length of working days, the different types of work time arrangements and how commonly used they each are, the use of work time, and how people balance work and private life. During the last decade, work times have diversified throughout Europe and also in Finland. At the same time, there are huge differences between different countries which are the result of both labor (in Finnish: työelämä) markets and cultural differences.

The information derived from the survey is a result of answers provided by citizens and employees, corporate human resources directors and employee (in Finnish: palkansaaja) representatives.

Trade unions participating “gray economy – black future” campaign

The police of Finland has started new campaign named “gray economy – black future” that encourages young people to reflect on the gray economy and its impact on their lives. The campaign aims to make it clear that each of us is the right person to combat against the gray economy. Finnish trade unions are participating the campaign as well.

The gray economy means that employer neglects the payments of statutory duties and social fees of employees (in Finnish: palkansaaja). Gray economy is also the abuse of social benefits, buying and selling pirate products, and in business, leaving the taxes and other statutory payments to be paid.

The campaign states that gray and black economy damage to both you and the society as a whole. When some of us don’t pay taxes and neglects other obligations, the collected tax revenue is considerably smaller. This will increase taxes and makes managing of publicly funded services harder, including street and road maintenance, health services, and school activities.
One of the campaign’s idea is to clarify, how the gray economy will affect to employee. Many young persons might not know, that undeclared work will not accrue a pension, or that the employer has not insured the workers against accidents. In gray economy, the sickness benefit and unemployment compensation are unknown.

The campaign states that everyday choices are many times more powerful eroding the gray economy than actions against criminal actions already taken place. The campaign has an informative web page, where quizzes about the subject can be made and a detective story to be read among the accurate info about the subject. There will be ads in radio and outdoor commercials promoting the campaign; the police’s and custom’s cars will be also labeled on the theme for the campaign time.
In addition to the Finnish Police force, participants of the campaign are the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the Ministry of Justice, Customs of Finland, Finnish Tax Administration, several trade unions like AKAVA, EK, SAK, STTK, PAM and Pardia, the Central Pension Security Institute of Finland, the Food Safety Authority of Finland Evira, the Financial Sector Federation of Finland, RT, the Finnish Transport and Logistics Federation SKAL, Federation of Finnish Enterprises, and Federal of Electrical and Telecommunications Contractors STUL.

Fixed term work slows down the equal salary development of women

Fixed term employee contracts have many negative ramifications. They, for example, slow the development of equal wages for women, lead to the uncertainty of a livelihood, and in the worst case scenario affect an employee’s (in Finnish, palkansaaja) physical health.

Problems coming from fixed term employment contracts have the biggest impact on female and young personnel. The threat of unemployment in fixed term contracts is up to seven times higher than in a permanent job, which causes uncertainty. Fixed term employees might not belong to an occupational health system provided by an employer: the trade unions in Finland have proposed that occupational health services for the temporary workers should be protected by law. The base for the long career is created at young age. If in the early stages of employee’s career she or he is ill-treated and is not entitled to health care, it does not bode well for the well-being at work and career.

Fixed term employment contracts are a huge injustice in the public sector that is mainly occupied by women. In the last reform of the Employment Contracts Act there was an aim to improve the position of women in the labor market (in Finnish, työmarkkina). In the law-drafting of the attention was drawn to the criteria of so-called atypical forms of employment relations. Still, in practice, it is relatively easy to use short term contracts against the law. The use of fixed term employment contract is legally permitted only if certain criteria are met. Between permitted and prohibited situations there remains a gray area, where no actual reasons for the use of fixed term contract exist.

Studies have proven that the temporary fixed term contracts are used more in Finland than European average. Trade unions (in Finnish, ay-liike) believe that the employee protection referred in the law is often not realized because of the employee does not dare or does not want to jeopardize the potential work relation with the employer. Periodicity is thus described as a kind of continuous trial period, during which the following precedence is redeemed.

Anything that would equalize the fixed term and permanent work career should be supported in order to provide more healthy and certain situation.

European Trade Union Confederation demands work, equality and fairness

European trade unions met in May 2001 in Athens for the European Trade Union Confederation Congress. This meeting is held every four years; this year, the most important issues that were discussed in the congress were economical and employment crisis management.

The main demand from ETUC was to develop European labor (in Finnish, työmarkkina) to the direction which takes into account the employees and the social justice. Even the Europe is in the middle of economical crises, ETUC would like to see the ways of surviving that would combine both the employees (in Finnish, palkansaaja) well being and economical competitiveness.

The ETUC has not welcomed the cutting policy that has been managed by European Commission and practised by European governments. These trade unions believe that the current movement will endanger the wages, public services and workers' rights. The debate has been especially heated related to the fresh initiative that would impose wage and collective bargaining under the watchful eye of European Commission.

Additional to the big discussion related to the economy, employment, and the regulation of markets, the topics included following: labor mobility, sustainable development and social dialogue between employees and employers. The new secretary general, the secretariat and the government for ETUC were elected in the congress also.

ETUC is the highest decision-making body of European trade union movement, which determines the strategy for the employee parties and action plan for the coming years.

Founded in 1973, the ETUC consists of 83 European confederations of workers from 36 countries and 12 sector-specific European Union. The ETUC member organizations are representing around 60 million workers in Europe.

Guide to salary discussions for managers and employees published in Finland

European trade unions met in May 2001 in Athens for the European Trade Union Confederation Congress. This meeting is held every four years; this year, the most important issues that were discussed in the congress were economical and employment crisis management.

The main demand from ETUC was to develop European labor (in Finnish, työmarkkina) to the direction which takes into account the employees and the social justice. Even the Europe is in the middle of economical crises, ETUC would like to see the ways of surviving that would combine both the employees (in Finnish, palkansaaja) well being and economical competitiveness.

The ETUC has not welcomed the cutting policy that has been managed by European Commission and practised by European governments. These trade unions believe that the current movement will endanger the wages, public services and workers' rights. The debate has been especially heated related to the fresh initiative that would impose wage and collective bargaining under the watchful eye of European Commission.

Additional to the big discussion related to the economy, employment, and the regulation of markets, the topics included following: labor mobility, sustainable development and social dialogue between employees and employers. The new secretary general, the secretariat and the government for ETUC were elected in the congress also.

ETUC is the highest decision-making body of European trade union movement, which determines the strategy for the employee parties and action plan for the coming years.

Founded in 1973, the ETUC consists of 83 European confederations of workers from 36 countries and 12 sector-specific European Union. The ETUC member organizations are representing around 60 million workers in Europe.

Is a temporary worker equal?

Temporary work is getting more and more popular in Finland, but is the temporary worker equal compared to permanent workers in a workplace?

A study about temporary work was done in April 2011 by the Finnish Federation of Special Service and Clerical Employees ERTO, an organization for employees (in Finnish, palkansaaja) working in expert positions in the private service sector. The questionnaire was sent to members of ERTO: 305 members replied, from which 59 % were women. Under 25 years old respondents were the majority.

According to the study, most of the temporary workers felt that they belonged to their working community and were part of it. Bad experiences existed also: in some places, temporary workers were treated like lower class citizens or robots, as one of the respondents described.

Inequality comes often from the fact that temporary workers do not have the same benefits as permanent workers. They do not get the possibility to be a part of the company bonus system or have performance based wage; the salary might be lower than permanent workers have, and employee benefits might not be given to temporary workers. Some of the respondents said that they were excluded from company supported training and education courses, company info sessions, even from company parties.

As long as temporary workers do not get the same benefits as permanent workers, the image of temporary work will not get any better. Temporary workers bring flexibility to employers for example at times when more staff is needed for a certain amount of time; temporary workers are also a great way to conclude unfinished projects and tasks that are waiting to be done. In the long run, more equal positioning of temporary workers would serve employers benefits as well, as the need for temporary workers is getting bigger and bigger all the time.

Temp worker – the possibility to customize your work

Temporary work may give the possibility to do work which is customized according to the employee’s needs – but how many temporary workers really see this as an opportunity?

A study by the Finnish Federation of Special Service and Clerical Employees ERTO, an organization for employees (in Finnish, palkansaaja) working in expert positions in the private service sector, shows that not too many. According to the study, the two most common reasons for doing temporary work are the need for fast employment and the fact that no other type of work is available. The other given options in the questionnaire that were “I wanted more freedom for my work”, “I wanted to experience different jobs and workplaces”, or “I wanted to foster my career” didn’t get even 1/3 of the answers of the first two mentioned.

Based on this result, it seems that employees do not see temporary work as a possibility, but as a necessity. Temporary work is still considered as the lower option for a permanent work contract. This conclusion is supported by a fact from the study that 74 % of temporary workers would like to have permanent position from their current work place.

But still there are people who can make the most out of the temporary work. Usually these individuals like the possibility to assign their working times according to their needs. Some need time for their studies, some time for travelling, some because they have more flexibility in taking care of their children. Other reasons for valuating temporary work over a permanent position were better earnings and diverse workplaces – some felt that they would get bored staying in the same workplace always.

Based on this study it seems that the status of temporary work is still undervalued. In order to improve the working conditions of temporary workers, one key issue would be to emphasize the positive side of doing temporary work: flexibility and freedom.

The questionnaire for this research was done in April 2011 among the members of ERTO. 305 members replied, from which 59 % were women. 54 % of respondents were under 25 years old, which typically is the age when temporary work is more common.

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?