Nokia senior clerical employees stage walk-out in Tampere and Oulu

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Last Friday, the senior clerical employees of the mobile telephone manufacturer Nokia walked out in Tampere and Oulu, demonstrating against the company’s personnel policy.
      In spite of Nokia’s unexpectedly good result for 2006, the company cut its employees’ performance bonuses and subsequently started statutory negotiations on a reduction of 340 jobs a week ago.
     
The company announced that the so-called "Connecting People" performance bonuses for the second half of last year would not be paid as the earnings per share were below the target set by the board.
      Markku Mattila, the shop steward at Nokia’s Oulu unit, said that Nokia’s senior clerical employees are concerned about the motivation and well-being of the staff.
      ”Long sick leaves have risen to very high levels, and managers are trying to find ways to motivate staff to reach higher and higher results, while the benefits deteriorate and a constant threat is looming”, reported Mattila.
     
However, this is only the beginning. Further statutory negotiations are to be started at the beginning of April, following the merger of the network operations of Nokia and German Siemens. The new joint venture intends to cut up to 9,000 jobs in various countries in the course of four years.
      While admitting that the result targets for the second half of last year were set very high, the executives at Nokia fully understand the protest of its senior clerical employees. In fact, the shop stewards are to meet Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo next week in order to discuss the planned loss of 340 jobs in Finland.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Nokia to cut more than 300 jobs in Finland (16.2.2007)
  Bollywood and the Nokia Bonus: The Serfs Strike Back (6.2.2007)
  Nokia personnel fume over bonus cuts (1.2.2007)
  Nokia announces unexpectedly good result for last year (25.1.2007)
  Nokia strives for dominance of network market through fusion with Siemens (20.6.2006)

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