The country’s leading daily Helsingin Sanomat reports on Tuesday that just 14.4 percent of new military conscripts don’t complete their compulsory period of military service in Finland.
This percentage is the lowest it has been in over ten years. The drop is partly explained by the military’s attempts to eliminate more unsuitable conscripts already at the mandatory call-ups. Last year 16.7 percent of the young men of the call-up age were excused from their service obligation or referred to a follow-up health examination. The most common reasons the 18-year-olds were judged to be unfit for service were excess weight, musculoskeletal disorders like chronic neck or back pain, and anxiety disorders.
Civil service numbers steady
In addition to the men exempted for health reasons, the 14.4 percentage of conscripts that failed to complete their service obligation includes those that elected a term of civil service as an alternative and those that deferred their enrolment. The Finnish Defence Forces have also tried to cut back on the number of dropouts by improving its leadership training and dialogue and feedback opportunities.
Last year the number of young men that chose to complete civil service instead was 1.7 percent, the paper writes. About five percent eventually go the civil service route, choosing later to pursue that option between call-up and reporting for service, or once they have begun their service, for example. This percentage has held steady for the last few years.
Human rights violations
The newspaper Kaleva out of Oulu writes that several Finnish witnesses will be heard today in a high-profile trial in Thailand. Human rights watchdog Finnwatch's executive director Sonja Vartiala and the senior vice president for sourcing at the biggest Finnish grocery retail chain S Group Jari Simolin will give testimony for the defence during researcher Andy Hall's criminal trial in Bangkok.
Andy Hall interviewed Thai company Natural Fruit’s workers for a Finnwatch report published in 2013. The report exposed serious human and labour rights violations at Natural Fruit's pineapple processing plant, including the use of smuggled migrant and child labour. According to the report, the employer had also confiscated passports and work permits from most of the migrant workers at the plant.
National Fruit brought charges against Hall for criminal defamation and computer crimes more than three years ago. The company says Hall’s accusations caused it millions in damages. The charges have been widely criticised as judicial harassment in response to Andy Hall's legitimate and peaceful work as a human rights defender. Finnwatch says it is not likely that he will receive a fair trial. If Hall is found guilty, he will face several years in prison. A decision is expected in the autumn.
Come together
And the Savon Sanomat paper out of Kuopio talks about the major loss of municipal jobs that may be in store if the government’s plan to consolidate Finland’s health and social services becomes a reality. The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities or Kuntaliitto, says support services like IT, cleaning and food services may all be transferred to the new super-regional system as well, meaning a massive loss of municipal personnel.
According to the draft of the new municipal governing law, personnel and finance administration would no longer be carried out in the municipalities and provinces, but would be transferred to a national corporation charged with universal administration. The draft would also integrate a single ICT system into the core of the services, further eliminating local jobs.
It is still unclear how the new administration would handle food services if the change becomes law. The current understanding is that meals services in hospitals and health centres would be organised by the new nation-wide administrator, but school and day care services would remain the responsibility of the municipalities. Larger regions can choose to buy food services from the municipalities or concentrate their resources in larger units.
Kuntaliito’s deputy CEO Hanna Tainio says that Finland’s municipalities would do well to start thinking of ways that they can step up their cooperation. If the new law removes half of their food and IT services, she says in the paper, there may not be enough business left for the service providers to make it on their own. Cities may be forced to do more merging and sharing of support services in the future.