Documents

This publication contains i) Finnish Government's report on the future, ii) a summary of the background work published in annexed reports, iii) abstracts of commissioned studies and iv) a description of the practice of issuing reports on the future in Finland.Changes in the age structure concern all age groups. "Ageing" will not only result in increased expenses but also, and more importantly, in a significant decrease in the number of working-age persons. The demographic changes will generate economic challenges, but they will also provide new opportunities. Safeguarding the well-being of people requires that the policies are both economically and socially sustainable for all generations. The report lays out a common perspective for all administrative sectors on preparing for the changes in the age structure. It aims at increasing the coherence of the Government's ageing policies by placing particular emphasis on seven policy areas. 1.Current demographic developments require modern population policy. The report discusses both ways to safeguard birth rate and to increase immigration. 2.The expected increase in the demand for services by elderly persons requires that greater emphasis be placed on promoting persons' functional capacity and health in different age groups. 3. Investments in children's and young persons' growth conditions and skills are needed. 4. Measures to increase both employment rate and productivity growth are also needed. 5. As it is impossible to precisely forecast demographic and economic developments, the report also stresses the need to reform social security. 6. From the viewpoint of regional demographic developments and safeguarding welfare services, it is essential to ensure the viability of municipal-level finances and to support cross-municipal cooperation and structural changes in service provision. 7.With its Report on the Future, the Government also wants to attract and encourage interest in measures to grasp the opportunities generated by changes in the age structure. As in the future, one person out of four will be aged 65 or more, it is prerequisite to support and utilise the resources and active participation of the ageing population.

The Draft Law of the Ministry of Development is concerned with the regulation and simplification of the institutional framework for the establishment, licensing, installation and operation of industrial and craft industry plants.

The Draft Law of the Ministry of National Education and Religious Matters defines lifelong learning and training programmes and establishes bodies responsible for them.

On 1 October 2004 the Economic and Social Council and the Council of European Integration signed an Agreement of Cooperation for the preparation of the country for the accession to the European Union. A review was made on the accession process referring to an individual professional group and its engagements evolving from all negotiation chapters. The Council has identified the textile and apparel sector as the first socio-professional group. Taking into consideration that many negotiation chapters contain the rights, obligations and commitments of the sector, the Council has developed an approach for preliminary identification of issues from the respective group in relation with the EU integration, which will be presented to the governmental institutions for the preparation of the responses.<br>The Opinion of the Council aims at drawing the attention of the public and the governmental bodies to the problems and eventual potentials for the solution.

The Council points to the existence of major occupational and regional imbalances in the Spanish labour market. Rather than a skill deficit among the unemployed, what is apparent is a loss in value of the skills that they acquired when working. The consider-able growth in employment since 1996 has not reduced the gap between the Autono-mous Regions with most employment, such as the Balearic Islands, Navarra and Ma-drid, and those with least employment, such as Extremadura and Andalusia. It is neces-sary to better coordinate actions in the field, to set objectives and to specialise and cus-tomise employment policy. The capacity of public services to act as intermediaries in employment should be enhanced. A priority should be to organise a national system of vocational training and qualification. Active policies for improving its efficacy should be systematically evaluated.

The Cabinet has asked the Social and Economic Council (SER) for advice on its traffic and transport policy for the next twenty years, set out in the Policy Document on Mobility, which has yet to be approved by the Lower House. The Policy Document on Mobility addresses mobility issues in a pragmatic fashion. Cabinet policy aims to steer the mobility issue in the right direction, while taking into account the interests of safety (including road safety), public health, the environment and the quality of the living environment. The SER views the adoption of a pragmatic approach as an important step in addressing mobility issues. However, the SER is disappointed that the Cabinet is only planning to implement a more active policy after 2010. The SER believes that more urgent attention needs to be devoted to improving access, combined with safeguarding safety and the quality of the living environment.

The Council welcomes this draft bill because it provides legal safeguards for collective bargaining in the field of compulsory retirement. This reform is the product of a consen-sus reached by the social partners and the government in the process of dialogue be-tween management and labour begun in July 2004.

Globalization refers to the integration of the world economy, mainly characterized by rapidgrowth in flows of trade, capital and technology between countries. Globalization also hasconsiderable cultural and political ramifications. The globalization report focuses on exploringhow Finnish production and work can succeed in circumstances that have changed and arecontinuing to change rapidly.

The Draft Law of the Ministry of the Interior, Public Administration and Decentralisation deals with various issues concerning the operation and modernisation of public administration, extending to personnel matters.

The report examines the challenges faced by Finland in the new phase of globalization and how these challenges should be met. The report outlines a strategy through which Finland can use the new opportunities afforded by globalization and combat the threats of tightening competition. The strategy is based on improving competence, on increasing openness in the economy and in society, and above all on renewal. The report focuses on proposals for strengthening the education and innovation systems. The functioning of the commodity and labour markets is also discussed, with proposals for improvement.

The Cabinet is advancing a new governance system that will give schools more leeway to select their own profile, thereby allowing them to respond more effectively to the wishes of participants (in particular their pupils) and to key into the demand for education in their area of authority, in consultation with their regional partners. The Social and Economic Council agrees with the main points and targets of the Cabinet?s proposed policy on vocational education and training. To achieve these targets, however, the government must become more pro-active. It is important that it continues to involve itself in the content of education and that it identifies performance targets for the sector. The government should actively support reform in vocational education and training and intervene if the reform measures prove ineffectual. The Council also believes it is the government?s task to encourage the active involvement of trade and industry in vocational education and to see that schools and businesses actually commit to any agreements they make.

In this advisory report, the Social and Economic Council has taken it upon itself to draw attention to some important socio-economic issues associated with the accession of Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Turkey. The report focuses mainly on Turkey because the decision-making process on that country's membership is still at an early stage. Moreover, Turkey is the largest of the candidate member states in terms of both population and size. A final argument for doing so is that the public debate on Turkey's accession to the EU has been dominated by ideological and political aspects, with the consequence that socio-economic aspects have been overshadowed.

Different opinions of Social and Economic Councils on proposals to modify eligibility requirements for benefits under the Unemployment Insurance Act

This report on temporality in public employment was adopted by the Economic and Social Council with 38 votes in favour, 2 against and 2 abstentions. It was commis-sioned by the government in July 2004 with a view to tackling this serious problem.Regarding the rise in the rate of temporary employment in the public sector, the Council points out that ?from any perspective, the percentage is excessive in respect of what might be a reasonable or necessary use by public administration of outsourced staff to meet temporary, unforeseen, extraordinary or urgent needs.? Public employment has tended to grow considerably in the past two decades. In just over fifteen years, employment in public administration as a whole has risen to a total of some 2.8 million. Currently the Autonomous Communities employ over half of all pub-lic servants, the local authorities 20 per cent, and central government 17 per cent. More-over, a large portion of public employment created in recent years has been taken up by women, so the balance between male and female employees is now practically even.The growth in public employment has been accompanied by a sharp rise in the propor-tion of temporary contracts, so that the current rate for public administration as a whole (22.8 per cent) is more than double that of 1987. This rise was sharpest in the last period of economic expansion. Between 1997 and 2003, the rate of temporary employment in the public sector went up by 6.6 points, contrasting with the trend in the private sector, which saw a drop of 6 points.The rate of temporary employment varies widely among the various tiers of public ad-ministration. The highest rates are in local government, at 29.7 per cent, followed by the Autonomous Communities with 23 per cent, and central government with just 13 per cent. The temporary employment rate is 29 per cent in the health service and 22 per cent in education.One notable feature of temporality in public employment is its higher incidence in women, chiefly in sectors such as education and health, and in local government. An-other feature is that temporary services in the public sector have tended to be provided over longer periods, bearing out the conclusion that temporary employment is quite of-ten meeting structural needs in public administration.The problem of temporary public employment needs to be addressed with a thorough review of the policy of outsourcing services and activities currently followed by the various tiers of government. This review should lead to a clear definition of which ac-tivities and services may be outsourced and which should remain under direct public management.This Council report follows other recent surveys and analyses of temporary employment in the public sector by other institutions and bodes, highlighting the increasing and widespread concern about the problem. All have a common conclusion, which the Council wishes particularly to emphasize: the existence of growing and excessive tem-porality in public employment, in excess of what would be justified by the needs of public administration to guarantee services in the event of technical, temporary and ur-gent requirements.It will not be possible to achieve the aim of reducing the excessive temporality in public employment without the adoption of measures for coordination and cooperation be-tween the various tiers of government and the social partners in order to establish and implement integrated and coherent actions.

Employees who suspect malpractice in the company they work for should be able to report their suspicions in a safe and satisfactory manner, for instance by reporting them to an independent intermediary or organisation. The code of practice drawn up by the Labour Foundation eighteen months ago on this topic merits follow-up. An independent committee such as that found in the public sector is not necessary for the private sector. Similarly, employers and employees should not be made responsible for developing compensatory measures or creating a fund for whistleblowers.