Jyri Häkämies, the director general at EK, reminds that employers must be able to trust that agreements are respected and that there will be no strikes as long as collective bargaining agreements are in force. (Credit: Mikko Stig – Lehtikuva)
The Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) has urged the government take legislative action to restrict the right to political strikes.
EK on Friday recommended that political demonstrations should be either limited in duration or organised outside work hours to ensure they are proportionate to the gravity of the dispute at hand, adding that such measures have already been introduced elsewhere in the Nordics.
“Employers must be able to trust that agreements are respected and that there will be no strikes as long as the collective bargaining agreement is in force. Because trade unions have often used political industrial conflicts as weapons in recent years, the right to political strikes should be restricted,” argued Jyri Häkämies, the director general at EK.
EK also estimated that the recent wave of industrial actions demonstrates that trade unions do not know how to use their right responsibly, stressing that it is unreasonable to have companies and their employees cover the costs of political protests.
“This is what transpired on Wednesday, when the costs of strikes rose to 50 million euros. In February, the losses stood at over 100 million euros. Strikes also cause substantial reputational damage, the cost of which is difficult to calculate,” it said.
Political strike are prohibited entirely in a number of European countries, including Germany, Greece, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, highlights EK. The right to strike has additionally been limited one way or the other in Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Norway and Sweden.
