Two SDP ministers deny claims of favouring rapporteurs with labour union backgrounds

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Finland’s Minister of Social Affairs and Health Tuula Haatainen (SDP) has denied claims from Finnish employers that Social Democratic ministers would favour experts with a labour union background when appointing rapporteurs to supply information to back up ministry decisions.
      Haatainen’s views were backed up by Minister of Labour Tarja Filatov (SDP).
     
Haatainen dismissed as "imagination" the notion that the labour union movement would have a background influence on reports commissioned by the government.
      Helsingin Sanomat reported on Thursday that the Confederation of Finnish Industry (EK), Local Authority Employers in Finland (KT), and the Federation of Finnish Enterprises were dissatisfied with the way that the government chooses its experts.
      Lasse Laatunen, the head of legal affairs at EK, said that deliberate political steamrolling was going on.
      The last straw came when Labour Minister Filatov commissioned a report on short-term labour contracts to be drafted by Kirsti Palanko-Laaka, head of the working environment section of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK).
      Advance information on the report, which has not been published yet, suggests that it calls for the establishment of a bonus for those working at a job with an uncertain future.
      Filatov emphasises that the report is just background work, and that the issue would be discussed in tripartite talks involving representatives of labour unions, employers, and the government. She also emphasised that the fact that a rapporteur is a Social Democrat does not make that person incompetent. She also noted that Palanko-Laaka was involved in drafting the bill for the present law on labour contracts.
     
A study on the sharing of costs incurred by parental leave was drafted by Tuula Haatainen’s husband, SAK lawyer Janne Metsämäki. However, he was commissioned to do the study when Haatainen’s predecessor Sinikka Mönkäre was in office.
      Haatainen says that the government has made sure that both labour unions and employers’ groups have representatives in various working groups and committees.
      She also said that she suspects that the employers’ groups are simply worried about the implications of the content of the upcoming report by Palanko-Laaka.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Employers criticise government for using rapporteurs affiliated with SDP and labour unions (1.12.2005)

Helsingin Sanomat