PAM’s Selin: Active model should be scrapped – the human element has been forgotten
Ann Selin, President of Service Union United PAM, demands that the Finnish government overturns the reforms to the Unemployment Security Act known as the active model. Selin considers the actions being taken by the government to be unreasonable and thinks that they will lead to the already fragile position of unemployed people being weakened further.
Selin considers that the position of the unemployed will not be improved by threatening to cut the minimum income.
– Providing guidance and support are a better way to bring about active job-seeking and employment than by weakening unemployed persons’ income and treating them inhumanely, Selin points out.
– Jobs won’t be created by punishing the unemployed, but through actions that both support and oblige companies to create new jobs, she states.
In Selin’s opinion, undermining the position of the unemployed is bound to increase inequality in Finland.
– We cannot expect that if someone loses their job they have to turn their whole life upside down to suit the active model. Humaneness and humanity have to be part of legislation, Selin asserts.
The active model for unemployment security is unjust and segregates people. In Selin’s opinion it must be overturned as soon as possible.
– The government is completely deaf and blind if it ignores the feedback it has received. It is high time the government understood that nearly 130,000 people who have signed the citizens’ initiative and the entire union movement within SAK know that the active model is not the way to go if the objective really is to improve employment, Selin says.
PAM’s Executive Committee met today Tuesday and decided to take part in the political demonstration organised by SAK on 2 February and the meeting of union leaders on 23 January, with almost 100 people from PAM attending. The Executive Committee stated that the political demonstration is not directed against employers but against the government.
– This political demonstration is our way of showing the government that the decision on the active model was a mistake that needs to be put right quickly. We expect as many workers in service sectors as possible to come to Helsinki on 2 February to make their views clear to the government, Selin says.