Long queues have formed outside the Malmi service point of the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) as customers are compelled to wait in line for over eight hours a day, reports Iltalehti. 

Migri’s Helsinki service point was shifted from Käenkuja to Malmi last week. Customers were unable to make an appointment or use the queue number service for two weeks during the move.

According to a report by Helsingin Sanomat, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is proposing that employees should be able to access information regarding their coworker’s salaries if they suspect gender-based discrimination. 

In such a case, the employer would be unable to refuse the request to provide salary details by law. The proposal has allegedly been submitted to a tripartite working group that promotes pay transparency and equality in the workplace (tripartite negotiations often play a key role in settling labour disputes in Finland). 

While high schools and vocational schools in the Helsinki metropolitan area will return to partial contact teaching this week, experts warn that the preceding months of distance learning could have long-term effects on students’ mental and emotional wellbeing.  

Several teenagers have reported feelings of loneliness, isolation, anxiety and depression that were intensified by interruptions in daily activities and limited social contact during the pandemic.

(Photo by Marcel Kusch / dpa / AFP) / - LEHTIKUVA / AFP

Ryanair today (14 Apr) noted the EU General Court's rulings on Finnish, Danish and Swedish State aid favouring Finnair and SAS over all other EU airlines. The Finnish government granted a €600m loan guarantee to Finnair which has benefited from more than €1.2bn in State aid since the beginning of the pandemic. The Danish and Swedish governments each granted a loan guarantee of €137m to SAS which has also benefited from recapitalisation State aid from these countries,

A person received a jab of the vaccine by AstraZeneca in Helsinki on 12 February 2021. (Markku Ulander – Lehtikuva)

HELSINKI may soon find itself with a surplus of the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca.

YLE on Monday reported that the Finnish capital received a shipment of 16,000 doses of the vaccine a week ago and expects to take delivery of another 16,000 doses two to three weeks from today. Meanwhile, the number of over 65-year-old people yet to be vaccinated stands at roughly 26,000, according to Timo Luukkarinen, a medical director at the City of Helsinki.

A health care professional in the infectious diseases ward of Kainuu Central Hospital in Kajaani on 8 July 2020. (Emmi Korhonen – Lehtikuva)

THE INCIDENCE of coronavirus infections was not significantly higher in health care employees than other working-age people in Finland in 2020, reveals a report published by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).

While health care employees make up 7.4 per cent of the working-age population, they accounted for 8.5 per cent of the infections detected last year in working-age people.

Member of Parliament Ano Turtiainen was photographed during a plenary session in the Finnish Parliament in Helsinki on 9 April 2021. (Emmi Korhonen – Lehtikuva)

ANO TURTIAINEN, a first-term Member of Parliament from South-east Finland, has recently sparked controversy with two questionable social media posts.

Turtiainen on Tuesday wrote on Facebook that he approaches police as he would his worst enemies of war and that he has lost his confidence in the police following a conditional fine issued to his company and police actions during an anti-restrictions protest held in Helsinki on Saturday.

Antti Rinne (SDP), the chairperson of the Parliament’s Constitutional Law Committee, has voiced his doubt about the committee’s ability to finalise a statement on the health and social care bill by Friday. (Jussi Nukari – Lehtikuva)

THE REFORM of social and health care services continues to create friction between Members of the Finnish Parliament.

Helsingin Sanomat on Monday wrote that time constraints are the latest source of disagreement in the drawn-out process, as some parliamentary committees are not expected to finalise their statements on the reform bill until May.

Police officers took into custody people who participated in a demonstration against the coronavirus restrictions in Helsinki on Saturday, 10 April 2021. (Heikki Saukkomaa – Lehtikuva)

OFFICERS at Helsinki Police Department brought 20 people into custody for failure to comply with police orders to disperse during a demonstration organised against the restrictions introduced to combat the coronavirus epidemic in Helsinki on Saturday.

An additional 10 motorists were fined for operating their vehicles in a disturbing manner as part of the demonstration.

The Finnish government will sit down this evening at the House of the Estates in Helsinki. (Heikki Saukkomaa – Lehtikuva)

THE FINNISH GOVERNMENT is unlikely to augment its toolkit for combating the coronavirus epidemic with new measures for the eventuality that the epidemiological situation takes a turn for the worse in May or June, reports Helsingin Sanomat.

The government said after its proposal for movement restrictions was shot down it will weigh up the need for alternative measures if the epidemiological situation worsens significantly.

The Zero Accident Forum granted annual safety level classifications to its member workplaces, celebrating work communities that were able to improve their occupational safety. All in all, 87 workplaces from various industries received a safety level classification. Of these, 33 workplaces reached the goal of zero accidents in 2020. The workplaces will discuss the best practices of their safety work in an open online seminar on Tuesday, 4 May 2021.

A medical professional administered a doze of the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine in a vaccination centre in Jätkäsaari, Helsinki, on 8 April 2021. (Emmi Korhonen – Lehtikuva)

THE PACE of Covid-19 vaccinations varies significantly from region to region in Finland, reports Helsingin Sanomat.

While the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) has administered a vaccine dose to 43 per cent of 65–69-year-olds, the corresponding share stands at 18 per cent in Päijät-Häme and eight per cent in Kainuu.

Minister of Finance Matti Vanhanen (Centre) was photographed arriving for a government meeting at the House of the Estates in Helsinki on 7 April 2021. (Heikki Saukkomaa – Lehtikuva)

THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE on Tuesday said Finland will delay presenting its recovery and resilience plan to the European Union until 15 May.

All EU member states are required to submit their plans to be eligible for funding disbursed under the 672-billion-euro Recovery and Resilience Facility of the EU. Finland was originally scheduled to present its plan on 30 April.

Earnings-related pension insurance company Varma invested EUR 200 million in the sustainable ETF by the global asset management firm BlackRock. Through its investment, Varma's intention is to support companies in lowering their carbon emissions and to reduce the carbon footprint of its own investments. BlackRock is one of the largest asset managers in the world.

A model presents a creation from Spanish brand Maison Mesa's Autumn - Winter 2021 / 2022 collection during the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Madrid on April 10, 2021. LEHTIKUVA / AFP

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