More than a thousand people in the Helsinki region could benefit from European funding to get their jobs back after they were laid off.
Finland has applied to the EU's European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) for funding to re-employ workers who recently lost their jobs at national airline Finnair as well as employees from the firm's subcontractors who were laid off.
Funds from the three million euro aid package will go toward helping around 600 airline workers who lost their jobs, as well as around 500 laid-off other workers from firms that work with the airline.
While the total budget of the project is roughly three million euros, 40 percent of that funding will come from national coffers.
Finland submitted its funding application to the European Commission on Wednesday. The EU programme is organised by the EGF, which provides support for training, education, mobility, wage subsidies as well as start-up grants during periods of economic crisis.
The re-employment of Finnair worker programme is already in progress, following the conclusion of redundancy talks in October. The effort has involved hiring 30 experts at Uusimaa's Employment and Economic Development (TE) Office.
During 2007-2019 Finland implemented 10 EGF-funded projects, amounting to a total of around 70 million euros in support.
Like most airlines around the world, Finnair was hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Following months of route cancellations and subsequent work furloughs, the airline announced that it was reducing staff by about 600 workers in October.