Riku Aalto, the chairman of the Finnish Industrial Union, has accused the government of not doing its part of the competitiveness pact.
The Finnish Industrial Union will stage a strike in an attempt to compel the government to scrap the much-criticised activation model for unemployment security, reports Talouselämä.
The Industrial Union has estimated that up to 140,000 employees could participate in the strike.
“We want to use this rare action to express our views explicitly not only about the activation model itself but also about the ways of working of the right-wing government of [Prime Minister] Juha Sipilä (Centre),” said Riku Aalto, the chairman of the Finnish Industrial Union.
“The government managed to push through its objectives with the competitiveness pact. It then viewed that it no longer has to adhere to the pact but continues to require that others do.”
Introduced at the beginning of the year, the activation model for unemployment security stipulates that job seekers will lose a share of their unemployment benefits if they fail to satisfy a set of activity criteria ever three months. A citizens’ initiative launched to counter the activation model has received over 130,000 statements of support.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT Photo: Jussi Nukari – Lehtikuva Source: Uusi Suomi
