15 May, 2008Three Finnish IMF affiliates believe Nokia should be the first Finnish company to sign an International Framework Agreement to secure basic rights for Nokia's employees around the globe.
FINLAND: In April 2008 the Finnish Metalworkers' Union , the Union of Salaried Employees and the Union of Professional Engineers in Finland called on Nokia to step forward and become the first Finnish company to sign an International Framework Agreement. The announcement was made at a press conference following the presenation of a new research report documenting precarious working conditions at a Nokia plant in Reynosa, Mexico.
The report was prepared by the Mexican organisation Cilas (Centro de Investigación Laboral y Asesoria Sindical) at the request of the Finnish trade unions and the Solidarity Centre of Finnish Trade Unions SASK. The report is available in Spanish and Finnish languages and examines how Nokia's currently applied Ethical Code of Conduct principles are implemented at the company's cell phone plant in Reynosa.
The Finnish unions have serious concerns over the fact that since the ethical codes are developed without unions' participation and no personnel is involved in the enforcement of the codes, they are neither binding employers nor monitoring the situation with their implementation.
The report exposes some troubling practices used at the plant in Reynosa, particularly unions are concerned that 35 per cent of the labour force working for the company is employed through the labour agencies Manpower and Adecco. The workers employed through the agencies get lower wages and have poorer benefits than their colleagues doing the same jobs, but directly contracted by the plant. More than half of the workforce does not know about the collective labour agreement concluded at their entrteprise. No employees were involved in its negotiation and it appeared as a result of an agreement between the management of the company and the undemocratically appointed workers' representative.
In 2002, the Finnish unions, who are affiliates of the International Metalworkers' Federation, made their first attempt and proposed to Nokia to start negotiations for an International Framework Agreement, however so far Nokia has not shown interest. This time, nevertheless, the Finnish unions believe the company will be more interested in starting IFA negotiations because it would positively reflect on Nokia's image.