The role of workers' and employers' organisations

Finland has one of the highest rates of union membership in the industrialised world. Eighty per cent of employees belong to trade unions. Traditionally, the relationship between workers' and employers' organisations has been harmonious in Finland, as in the other Nordic countries. Trade unions and employers' organisations have actively participated in the development of regulations governing the conditions of working life in Finland and in the development of the social security system. Employment issues are addressed in the context of their negotiations with the government over the budget.¹²

Finnish employers' organisations have been particularly concerned about unemployment, controlling expenditure on social security, and improving the country's overall economic situation. They are actively participating in national programmes on work ability and workplace development, but have been somewhat less concerned than workers' organisations about the issues of stress and burnout. However, all the labour market organisations have expressed their readiness to take action to promote staff know-how, work ability, and wellbeing and to work in co-operation with Ministries of Labour, Social Affairs and Health, and Education.¹³

The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) considers that job insecurity and workplace stress are severe problems in Finnish working life. It argues that employees are stretched to the limit. SAK has called for preventive measures against burnout, the ability to alternate between work and training, and a reduction in working hours. SAK has also introduced the concept of "social accounting" and states that competition at the expense of working conditions should be stopped. SAK published a booklet "Eväitä Jaksamiseen" (1999) on coping with stress and preventing burnout, which provides practical guidance for workplaces on stress prevention. SAK emphasises that wellbeing at work and coping with work are closely related to management and leadership, working hours, and the planning and organisation of work.¹⁴

In 1998, the Finnish Confederation of Salaried Employees (STTK) launched a programme on mobbing. Mobbing involves hostile and unethical communication that is directed in a systematic manner towards one or more co-workers who are pushed into a helpless and defenceless position. There are occasional problems in every workplace, but to qualify as mobbing, they must occur on a frequent basis (at least once a week) and over a time period of least six months. This maltreatment can result in considerable mental, psychosomatic, and social misery. STTK's programme includes local events, panel discussions, consciousness raising amongst its affiliated unions, and local campaigns, one of which resulted in a guidebook entitled "Työpaikalla yhteishenkeä - ei kiusanhenkeä" on preventing mobbing in the Finnish workplace.¹⁵