SAK publishes policy goals for the next government

Improving the employment situation remains the main objective of SAK for the government to be formed after the new Parliament is elected for the period 2007-2011. Even though the employment rate has increased to about 70 per cent during the lifetime of the current Parliament, persistent structural unemployment and associated social exclusion continue to be serious problems in Finland. In its programme of objectives the organisation stresses that further improvement in the rate of employment is essential to ensure the financial stability of the welfare state.

SAK feels that the emphasis in taxation policy should be shifted away from taxation of work. The organisation insists, however, that tax cuts should not be pursued in a manner that jeopardises public sector financing or the scope of public services.

SAK also expresses the hope that the next government will tackle the problems of casual and discontinuous employment, and come to grips particularly with the difficulties that arise in agency work. The proportion of the national workforce deployed through employment agencies has risen substantially in recent years, and employers are also increasingly assigning the duties of regular employees to employment agencies. This threatens to undermine employee job security and benefits, and to increase inequality in the job market. SAK is proposing regulation of agency work through legislation and other means to allow such work only in clearly defined and exceptional situations.

SAK proposes a complete reform of vocational adult education with a view to expanding the retraining opportunities of adults of working age. The financial basis of adult education should also be reconsidered. The organisation is proposing that part of business profits, for example, should be invested in staff training.

SAK is keen to promote gender equality planning at workplaces. One way to achieve this would be through an amendment to clarify the Act on Equality between Women and Men ensuring that wage comparisons also occurred in practice between jobs of equal value falling under different collective bargaining agreements.

Even though the rights of employees to job security and various employment-related benefits have improved over the years in Finland, SAK still feels that it is too difficult for individual workers to secure judicial review of terms and conditions of employment in practice. The organisation is therefore calling for reforms in legislation giving the trade union movement independent standing to take legal action when clear violations of labour laws or collective agreements have occurred. Class action lawsuits should also be possible in matters of employment.

The Finnish parliamentary elections are scheduled for 18 March 2007.