More than a 1,000 immigrants employed through Integration SIB project
An experiment aiming to employ immigrants quickly made use of the SIB (Social Impact Bond) model of impact investing. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment will hire an external evaluator to assess the success of the experiment. The preliminary results are encouraging.
315,800 unemployed jobseekers in September
A total of 315,800 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices at the end of September, an increase of 89,700 from the previous year. The number of unemployed jobseekers decreased by 13,900 from the previous month. The number of unemployed jobseekers also includes those fully laid off. These figures are from the Employment Bulletin of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.
Labour Council takes a position on the legal status of food couriers
The Labour Council has issued two opinions concerning the legal status of food couriers working in the platform economy. According to the Labour Council, the food couriers of the companies that were the subject of the request for opinions are considered employees and fall within the scope of application of the Working Hours Act.
Ministry launches review on the current state and promotion of local collective bargaining
In the autumn 2020 budget session, the Government decided to commission a report on measures to strengthen the trust and negotiating competence required for local collective bargaining within both generally binding collective agreements and normally binding collective agreements. On 14 October 2020, Minister of Employment Tuula Haatainen appointed Master of Laws Jukka Ahtela and Cooperation Ombudsman Joel Salminen as rapporteurs.
European Commission extends temporary State aid framework until 30 June 2021
The European Commission introduced more flexibility to State aid rules in the spring and summer due to the coronavirus epidemic. On 13 October 2020, the Commission issued a Communication extending the scope of the less stringent rules mainly until 30 June 2021. The aim is to give the Member States a wide range of tools to support companies and to mitigate the adverse economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Talent Boost
The objective of the Government’s joint Talent Boost programme is to make Finland more attractive to international talents and to channel the expertise of international talents already in Finland to support growth, internationalisation and innovation in Finnish companies.
Low-carbon roadmaps 2035
The Government will work to ensure that Finland is carbon neutral by 2035 and carbon negative soon after that. In accordance with the Government Programme, sectoral low-carbon roadmaps will be drawn up in cooperation with companies and organisations in the relevant sectors.
Tuula Haatainen
Minister of Employment