Rautaruukki employees blame working hour arrangements for surge in absenteeism and suicides
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Employees of the steel manufacturer Rautaruukki suspect thatan increase in sick leaves and the recent suicides of three employees at the Raahe plant are linked with management practices at the steel mill and constant changes stemming from co-determination talks.
Shop steward Mika Vuoti says that the number of sick days has surged in the autumn, and is twice the normal level at similar workplaces.
Absenteeism levels are the equivalent of an average ten per cent of regular working hours, and in some parts of the factory, the level is even higher.
“We have criticised management practices for a long time, but to no avail.”
Absenteeism due to illness has been in the increase at the plant for a couple of years now. “Usually in an industry like this, absences due to illness account for an average of less than five per cent, but we have departments where it is as high as 12 per cent”, Vuoti says.
Three employees of the Raahe steel mill have committed suicide within a month. The total number of suicides in the past four months is four.
Two union activists at Rautaruukki suggested in a letter to the editor of the Kauppalehti financial newspaper on Monday that the deaths would have some connection with changes in the arrangement of work shifts at the plant.
The section where the workers were employed saw their former system of five shifts changed to a four-shift system, which has been seen as very strenuous.
Vuoti says that the model also means that shifts, and earnings from the shifts, can vary considerably from one month to the next. Especially difficult is the fact that recuperation time after an all-night shift can be very short.
While conceding that the working hour arrangements can be strenuous, Olavi Huhtala, head of steel production at Ruukki Metals, takes offence at the suggestion that the suicides had been the result of the new working hour arrangements.
“The main issue is recuperation after a night shift. We are looking for a solution to making it easier”, Huhtala says.
Shop steward Mika Vuoti says that the changes in shifts were a unilateral decision by management, applying to about 200 of the approximately 2,000 employees in the plant.
Vuoti says that the full impact of the new arrangements has not yet sunk in on many of the employees, who have recently come from their summer holidays. “We’ll see how difficult it gets in the eight months before the next summer holiday.”
He calculates that the unilateral changes will cost the company EUR 20 million in lost sales revenue from production problems and absentees are taken into account. He calculates that savings in wage costs are somewhere in the range of EUR 1.5-2 million.
In the letter to the editor of Kauppalehti, the employees compared the suicides among Rautaruukki employees with those at the French telecommunications company France Télécom, where 25 employees have killed themselves in the past 20 months. The French company has 100,000 employees compared with a total of 7,000 at Rautaruukki.
“Three is proportionally a much bigger figure compared with France Télécom”, Vuoti says.
Alpo Pirneskoski, occupational safety delegate at Rautaruukki, says that he has requested an inspection of the Raahe plant by occupational safety authorities.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 27.10.2009 - TODAY |
 Rautaruukki employees blame working hour arrangements for surge in absenteeism and suicides |
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