Labour leaders accuse Nokia of shirking responsibility for terminated employees

Nokia gave 1,200 employees to consulting firm, which now wants to get rid of them

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Mobile telephone giant Nokia is being accused by Finnish labour leaders of not taking responsibility for the plight of employees who are being terminated.
      Last year Nokia outsourced 1,200 jobs in Tampere, Oulu, Salo, and the Helsinki region to the consulting services company Accenture.
      The weekly news magazine Suomen Kuvalehti writes in an article published on Friday last week that Accenture now wants to get rid of a large portion of its employees who came from Nokia by offering voluntary termination contracts.
     
In the view of Pertti Porokari, chairman of the Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff (YTN), Nokia has not lived up to its promises.
      “Nokia has not taken on the responsibilities that they advertised last spring”, Porokari says.
      He says that Accenture has also tried to illegally pressure those who were moved to the company from Nokia to accept downgraded terms of employment.
     
In April Nokia CEO Stephen Elop emphasised that Nokia took responsibility for providing employment.
      He said that Nokia aims to find long-term employment possibilities with its employees and partners.
      Nokia has not said how much it paid Accenture for taking software developers of the Symbian operating system onto its payroll.
     
Antti Rinne, chairman  of the Trade Union Pro agrees with Porokari.
      “Nokia has outsourced its social responsibility to Accenture, and at the same time it has failed badly in keeping its promises. I am very disappointed, because last spring I believed that Nokia made socially sustainable decisions”, Rinne says. He urges the government to take quick action.
      “I demand that the government rapidly draw up a new business and industrial policy plan with which skills of those who are losing their jobs could be utilised. Large companies are not interested in their employees, or in what happens to Finland.”
     
Meanwhile, Porokari is urging the Federation of Finnish Technology Industries to join forces with the unions to work on behalf of skilled labour.
      “There is a tremendous problem in the technology industry because applicants for work greatly outnumber the jobs available. I demand that the Federation of Finnish Technology Industries should think of ways to find jobs for those who are losing their jobs at Accenture”, Porokari says.
      On Saturday Nokia said that it would “support” Accenture in moving its former employees to face new “challenges”.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Elimination of 60% of jobs at Nokia factory has severe implications for Salo economy (9.2.2012)
  Nokia Siemens Networks cutting 1,200 jobs in Finland (1.2.2012)
  Nokia seeks to soften blow of job cuts (28.4.2011)

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