PAM’s Ylitalo: Finland must invest in skills and improved working life quality
Jaana Ylitalo, Collective Bargaining Director at Service Union United PAM, is concerned about Finland’s future. In a changing and increasingly technological world, one of the biggest threats is a situation where the skilled labour needed to perform demanding work tasks is not available.
In Ylitalo’s opinion, this week’s announcements by the government are worrying for the Finnish economy. In difficult economic times employment has to be supported by investing in education, skills and financing services for the unemployed.
- The government doesn’t seem to see that rather than tightening, what is needed is more support for the needs of working life, Ylitalo stresses and continues
- The role of adult education is being downgraded and income support for the unemployed is hanging in the balance. Planned changes to housing support are targeted at low-earners. We have thousands of low income-earners on housing support. The proposed reductions will hit labour mobility, Ylitalo points out.
In Ylitalo’s view, cuts in unemployment benefits will not promote employment or raise the national employment rate. At its worst, the proposed active model will mean that unemployed persons’ income is cut whilst they are punished with new waiting periods. If the jobs the government is looking could be created easily, we wouldn’t have an unemployment problem.
- We won’t turn Finland around by wearing people down. So it’s strange that a system is being created in this country that is likely to lead to an increase in irregular and unpaid work, Ylitalo states.
Ylitalo points out that the ways in which work is performed have changed, and therefore skills should be upgraded. New technologies and robotisation are threatening Finnish jobs. In future, therefore, workers will be needed in more demanding and productive tasks, meaning that it will be even more important to continually lift people’s vocational skills.
- Education, training and extending workers’ skills are crucially important in this ongoing evolution. For Finland and its economy, the key competitive advantage is skilled people and a working life where new services can be created without undermining working conditions, Ylitalo states.
The Collective Bargaining Director of Service Union United PAM spoke at the May Day celebration in Hämeenlinna on 1 May 2017.News item first published in Finnish on 1 May 2017.