Budget negotiations are always considered difficult, but this year they really are hard, writes daily Helsingin Sanomat as ministers convene on Monday and Tuesday to thrash out state spending for next year.
The government has forged two main ways to boost employment by 30,000--half of the self-imposed target of 60,000 new jobs. The first is abolishing the system whereby older unemployed workers can claim jobless benefits through to early retirement, in theory removing employers’ incentive to fire over-55s. The second is a new 'individual jobseeker model', which uses more stick than carrot to wean people off unemployment benefits.
This new scheme would entail job seekers receiving a phone call from their local TE centre employment office within 5 days of applying for benefits. Every month job seekers would need to demonstrate they are actively looking for work, and face the possibility of losing allowances if they are unable to prove they have applied for jobs.
PM Sanna Marin’sgovernment has rolled back the Juha Sipilä (Cen) administration’s highly unpopular activation model, which docked unemployment benefits for unemployed people failing to meet certain targets, such as 18 hours of paid work in each three-month period.
No more wine online?
While consumers can click beverages into their baskets while perusing the selection at alcohol monopoly retailer Alko, Finland is looking at ways of criminalising online purchases of booze from foreign retailers, according to business magazine Talouselämä.
Right now, laws don’t explicitly forbid the purchase of alcohol from abroad.
In the future, health officials could flag foreign direct-to-consumer alcohol dealers to police for preliminary investigation, making the business a judicial matter, according to a spokesman from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
Chinese cobblestones in Turku
Finland is not known to have a shortage of rocks, which is why some Turku residents are infuriated that the city is repaving the town’s market square--the historic heart of the city--with Chinese cobblestones.
The move raises questions about the city’s priorities relating to climate and social responsibility, reports Swedish-language daily Hufvudstadsbladet.
While two Finnish firms won the public contact, the companies are sourcing the stones from Chinese quarries. The city said the Chinese rocks were half a million euros cheaper than domestically mined rocks.
Turku said purchasing carbon offsets could compensate for the carbon dioxide emissions associated with transporting the rock load from China.