Defence Forces will assist those made redundant with employment support

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The Finnish Defence Forces will provide financial assistance for organisations willing to employ their workers who are made redundant in connection with cutbacks. The Defence Forces may pay the re-employed worker's salary on behalf of the new employer for up to a year, on condition that the aim is to create a permanent job for the individual.
      "The objective is that by the year 2008 no-one made redundant by the Defence Forces would be left without a new job", explains head of the civilian sector at the Defence Staff, Marja-Terttu Paananen.
     
So far, the Defence Forces have agreed on around a dozen cooperation contracts required by law with the new employers of the dismissed workers.
      Other similar contracts will follow at the beginning of next year, when the Helsinki Anti-Aircraft Regiment's garrison in Hyrylä, the Savo Brigade in Mikkeli, and the Turku Coastal Artillery Regiment are to be closed down. Furthermore, activities of the Kotka Coastal Command will be downsized.
      "In most cases, the new employer will be a municipal authority, but the field of commerce has also expressed interest towards workers with a Defence Forces background", Paananen informs.
     
According to the cooperation contract, the new employer of a dismissed FDF employee will agree to employ the individual for a minimum of a year, but will also aim to provide him or her with a permanent position.
      The arrangement only applies to the civilian staff working for the Defence Forces. The cutting of the military staff will happen, for example, through reducing the number of new students entering officer training. This will have a noticeable effect on the number of staff only after a couple of years.
      The exact number of the people likely to be made redundant in connection with the downsizing is anybody's guess, as the statutory personnel negotiations have not started yet.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Defence Forces to cut 250 jobs - thousands of others to take new tasks or retire (15.3.2006)

Links:
  The Finnish Defence Forces

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