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18 February, 2001A complaint was filed in court for the breach of the Finnish Act on Cooperation in Undertakings.
FINLAND: Nine Finnish trade unions have presented a claim for indemnification of more than 50 million Finnish markka (US$7.7 million) for the closing down of the Fujitsu Siemens computer factory in Espoo, Finland. The trade unions are pleading this case for approximately 220 dismissed blue- and white-collar workers.
An indemnity amounting to 20 months' salary to be paid by the company is being claimed for all employees involved. It is the highest possible indemnity determined by the Finnish Act on Cooperation in Undertakings. The individual claims vary from FIM 200,000 (US$30,700) to more than FIM 600 000 (US$92,100).
The personnel was informed in December 1999 about the plant closing, which was an immediate consequence of the merger of Fujitsu and Siemens computer activities at European level. In connection with the merger, production and product development were relocated from Finland to the Fujitsu and Siemens plants in Germany. The plant in Espoo, Finland, was making a profit.
According to the trade unions, the Finnish Act on Cooperation in Undertakings was systematically broken. The president of the Finnish Metalworkers' Union, Erkki Vuorenmaa, says that the unions want to see by means of legal proceedings how this Act operates in Finland, even if the legal proceedings will not bring back jobs to the Espoo plant.
Vuorenmaa finds it important that the international company management now will be by means of legal proceedings reminded of that the rules of the game in the Finnish working life also concern big multinationals' subsidiaries in Finland and even in cases of merger.
An indemnity amounting to 20 months' salary to be paid by the company is being claimed for all employees involved. It is the highest possible indemnity determined by the Finnish Act on Cooperation in Undertakings. The individual claims vary from FIM 200,000 (US$30,700) to more than FIM 600 000 (US$92,100).
The personnel was informed in December 1999 about the plant closing, which was an immediate consequence of the merger of Fujitsu and Siemens computer activities at European level. In connection with the merger, production and product development were relocated from Finland to the Fujitsu and Siemens plants in Germany. The plant in Espoo, Finland, was making a profit.
According to the trade unions, the Finnish Act on Cooperation in Undertakings was systematically broken. The president of the Finnish Metalworkers' Union, Erkki Vuorenmaa, says that the unions want to see by means of legal proceedings how this Act operates in Finland, even if the legal proceedings will not bring back jobs to the Espoo plant.
Vuorenmaa finds it important that the international company management now will be by means of legal proceedings reminded of that the rules of the game in the Finnish working life also concern big multinationals' subsidiaries in Finland and even in cases of merger.