Teleworking Conference in Helsinki

A conference on teleworking, eWork2001, was held in Helsinki from the 12th to the 14th of September 2001. Hundreds of specialists from the various European countries attended the conference. A trade union meeting was also arranged in conjunction with the conference.

The SAK President, Mr Lauri Ihalainen, opened a seminar on distance working, which was arranged jointly by the central organisations of Finnish trade unions, by saying that when the number of distance workers was expressed as a percentage of the population, Finland was one of the leading countries in the utilisation of distance working, both within Europe and across the entire globe. "This subject is therefore of particular interest to the trade union movement in Finland, and we are very pleased to now have the opportunity of meeting our European colleagues on this theme."

Mr Ihalainen remarked that there has been previous cooperation in this area. "Good distance working practices were sought within the EuroTelework Project, which was conducted in the year 2000 under the auspices of the ETUC and which was led by Willy Buschak. As part of this project, reports on the current situation regarding distance working on a national level were drafted. SAK was the Finnish member and participation in the project provided us with further information on the development of distance working in various other countries. Similar joint ventures could advantageously be recommended for the future. I believe that the experiences which were gained by the other participants were equally positive.

The distance worker must have employee status

"The ETUC and UNICE/CEEP are about to commence negotiations on distance working, in order to achieve an agreement at a European level. All of the central organisations of the Finnish trade unions defined their negotiation goals in the summer, and the ETUC has taken these into account. I would particularly like to mention one of these issues, which is that in Finland, and in the Nordic countries in general, it is expected that the distance worker will be an employee, who is on the regular pay-roll. This means that the terms of employment may be negotiated on a collective basis and, in addition, the trade unions can safeguard the working conditions", Mr Ihalainen emphasised.

Mr Jyrki Helin, the Research Officer of SAK, remarked that distance working was currently on the increase: "According to our research, women under 35 years of age, taken from all employees and similarly from all SAK members, form the group which is the most interested in participating in distance working. Half of such female SAK members would be prepared to engage in distance working for at least a proportion of their working hours. The distance working potential in Finland, that is the amount of work which could be transferred, at least in part, into distance working, is variously estimated as being from 20 to 40 per cent. The figure varies from sector to sector. We can draw a clear conclusion from this, which is that distance working has become more commonplace and is here to stay. According to Finnish research, this form of working has multiplied fivefold during the 1990's, and it will continue to grow. There will in the future be an increase in the number of call centres, supervisory work will be conducted with the aid of portable computers, as is the case already with installation work, and routine office work will be transferred, to be carried out on a home computer."

A future working method

The problems associated with distance working have not yet had an impact in Finland. "Currently, the typical distance worker in Finland is a well paid professional male, who is either in a managerial position or is engaged in planning. His pay, along with his terms of employment, are appropriate, and distance working has not been imposed upon him against his will. The terms of employment for the distance worker have thus, to date, been free of problems. Distance working has resulted in a full-time employee, for example, transferring a part of his work to his home. He is paid on the basis of his main occupation and the time that he has spent on distance working can usually be reasonably estimated. Distance working may carry problems which are associated with working conditions, lack of social contact and poor ergonomics, but these do not usually last for too long a period as the distance worker can in most cases return to the normal procedure of doing his work at his workplace."

"But what will the position be in the future, when the cost of information technology has been radically reduced and communications are even further improved?"Mr Helin asks. "Will work be transferred to the home, where it is to be done on a piece work basis, with no clearly defined status for the employee nor any proper terms of employment? How will those who work in this manner become unionised? Who will represent the interests of these dispersed individual workers? We have seen an increase in telesales of all types, but we neither know for sure the number of people who are engaged in this sort of work nor the conditions in which they work. What are the SAK affiliated unions able to offer these people, some of whom may very well work within the grey market? The answer to these problems can be found, as was emphasised by the SAK president, Lauri Ihalainen, in joining a trade union and in having a proper contract of employment."

Jyrki Helin, Research Officer