Help to criminalise wage theft by signing the citizens’ initiative

Your Trade Union JHL participates in a citizens’ initiative that aims to criminalise wage theft in Finland, too. In this initiative, an employer could be convicted of wage theft if they deliberately pay too little to employees.

Should employers be punished for deliberately paying too little? If you think so, it’s time to act. You can help by signing a citizens’ initiative (in Finnish) demanding that wage theft is criminalised in Finland.

Underpayment is currently not a punishable offence in Finland. Signers of the citizens’ initiative demand that wage theft is added to the Penal Code. An employer could be convicted of wage theft if they pay less than what the collective agreement for that sector requires.

This initiative has been available for signing since the end of May. By mid-June it had a bit over 1000 signatures.

The persons in charge of this initiative include several SAK-affiliated unions’ leaders and employees, as well as the former Prime Minister Antti Rinne (SDP), and Dimitri Qvintus, who was a candidate of the Social Democratic Party in the EU elections.

An important part of the Nordic model

The President of Trade Union JHL, Håkan Ekström, has commented on wage theft earlier. He thinks that this approach would help in developing the Finnish labour market.

– This is an important part of the Nordic model that the trade union movement supports, Ekström says in JHL’s article.