The Authoritarian Welfare State
Awhile back, I wrote about the looming mass resignation of nurses here in Finland.
Now, apparently, the Finnish government is ready to use the favourite tool of the state; force.
Government prepares legislation to keep some nurses at work
Urgent care would be excluded from industrial action
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The government is proposing legislation to mitigate the impact of
possible industrial action by the Union of Health and Social Care
Professionals (Tehy), which is threatening to organise a mass
resignation as of the 19th of this month to back demands for higher
pay.
The aim of the bill under preparation is to secure urgent
treatment necessary to keep patients alive. Excluded from the action
would be activities such as emergency room treatment, intensive care
units, and treatment of premature babies and support services such as
laboratories and x-ray examinations.
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health calculates that
the bill would exclude no more than ten per cent of the 12,700 nurses
who have signed up for the mass resignation campaign.
A mediation board set up
to seek a solution to the dispute has been given a tight schedule in
order to secure passage of the proposed legislation.. The board is
expected to come up with a proposed solution by Thursday morning.
If no solution comes by then, the government will discuss
the proposal for legislative change securing urgent care at its meeting
on Thursday.
Another reason for the tight schedule is that possible
legislative action would require a full week of handling in Parliament;
if the legislation is to be in force by the November 19th deadline, it
needs to be brought before Parliament on Friday this week.
The Ministry of Social Affairs
and Health does not want to comment on the possible legislative change.
The ministry first wants to see if the mediation board comes up with a
proposal by Thursday morning.
Helsingin Sanomat was not able to reach Minister of Social Services Paula Risikko (Nat. Coalition Party) for comment.
Top officials from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health
met with Tehy leaders just under two weeks ago. At that time the
ministry appealed to the union to voluntarily exclude treatment from
the labour dispute whose neglect could endanger the lives or health of
the patients.
Two weeks ago the Commission
for Local Authority Employers in Finland asked the government to impose
restrictions on the action by Tehy. Similar limits were placed on
health care strikes in 1995, 1998, and 2001.
However, the threatened action is not a traditional strike:
Tehy feels that technically resigning, rather than going on strike,
exempts the nurses from obligations to maintain any services.
The mediation board, chaired by Archiatre Risto Pelkonen, continued its efforts to find a solution to the dispute late into the night on Monday.
Link to the Helsingin Sanomat article