Fin­land falls in ran­kings – Tra­de union rights under­mi­ned by the government’s actions

The Orpo-Pur­ra govern­ment has announced its inten­tion to int­ro­duce mea­su­res that seek to reduce Finland’s pull fac­tors for immi­grants. The­se policies will natu­ral­ly wea­ken the social and unemplo­y­ment secu­ri­ty of all Finns.

The govern­ment has been par­ticu­lar­ly success­ful in wea­ke­ning wor­kers’ rights. This year, Fin­land was the only Nor­dic count­ry to drop out of the group of best count­ries in the world for wor­kers. The com­pa­ri­son is publis­hed by the Inter­na­tio­nal Tra­de Union Con­fe­de­ra­tion ITUC. The 11th annual ITUC Glo­bal Rights Index report was publis­hed in June.

The ITUC ranks the world’s count­ries into five rating groups based on the rea­li­sa­tion of labour rights in prac­tice. Pre­vious­ly, Fin­land has always been in the top rating group.

Otherwi­se, the group of best count­ries in the world remai­ned unc­han­ged. In addi­tion to the four Nor­dic count­ries, it inclu­des Ita­ly, Ire­land, Austria and Ger­ma­ny. In its new rating group, Fin­land is accom­pa­nied by 21 count­ries, inclu­ding Gha­na, Malawi and Mol­do­va. Fin­land is the only count­ry among the top two groups to dete­rio­ra­te in its rating.

Fin­land is the only count­ry among the top two groups to dete­rio­ra­te in its rating.

The ITUC col­lects data about vio­la­tions of tra­de union and labour rights around the world. For the report, the data is com­pa­red to the 97 rights ensh­ri­ned in inter­na­tio­nal conventions.

Busi­nes­ses and govern­ments around the world are infrin­ging on tra­de union and labour rights at an acce­le­ra­ting pace. The right to stri­ke was vio­la­ted in nine out of ten and the right to col­lec­ti­ve bar­gai­ning in eight out of ten count­ries. Tra­de unio­nists were arres­ted or impri­so­ned in near­ly half of the countries.

Russia’s war in Ukrai­ne and Israel’s exten­si­ve devas­ta­tion in Gaza and tigh­te­ning occu­pa­tion in the West Bank have furt­her dete­rio­ra­ted rights in all of the four count­ries involved.

The ten worst count­ries in the world for wor­kers are Bangla­desh, Ecua­dor, Egypt, Eswa­ti­ni, the Phi­lip­pi­nes, Gua­te­ma­la, Myan­mar, Tuni­sia, Tur­key and Bela­rus. Twel­ve count­ries in which the rule of law has bro­ken down, inclu­ding Hai­ti, Libya and Syria, are grou­ped in a sepa­ra­te cate­go­ry below the five rating groups.

Poli­tical stri­ke in Nigeria

Unli­ke in Fin­land, pro­lon­ged poli­tical stri­kes are legal in Nige­ria. In June, two of the count­ry’s cent­ral labour orga­ni­sa­tions star­ted a poli­tical stri­ke wit­hout a sta­ted end date. Their demand was inc­rea­sing the mini­mum wage by more than the 60,000 nai­ra (€37) offe­red by the govern­ment. Howe­ver, the unions ended the stri­ke quickly to allow nego­tia­tions to begin.

Van­guard, a Nige­rian news­pa­per repor­ting on the stri­ke, wri­tes that vio­la­tions of wor­kers’ rights are still com­monplace in Nige­ria. In the recent ITUC Glo­bal Rights Index report on labour rights around the world, Nige­ria was one of the count­ries to drop its rating.

Read the article in Finnish!