Finland opent arbeidsmarkt voor Oost-Europeanen (en)

Finland is considering opening up its labour market to workers from new member states, opting not to prolong the current restrictions.

According to Yle Radio Suomi, a Finnish public radio station, Helsinki will probably choose not to apply for another transition period of three years banning citizens from eight countries of central and eastern Europe from working in Finland without special permission.

The move enjoys support from both the country's prime minister Matti Vanhanen, and the labour minister Tarja Filatov.

One of their key motives is that Finland will hold the EU's chair in the second half of 2006, and the labour burdens do not match with one of the bloc's fundamental freedoms - the freedom of movement of workers, Polish press agency PAP reported.

The initiative could influence some of the other eleven countries that may follow suit in lifting the temporary ban next year.

At the moment, only the UK, Ireland and Sweden have fully opened their labour markets to workers from the post-communist countries that joined the EU in May 2004.

Other "old" member states had introduced a two-year ban, and they are supposed to announce by the end of May next year whether they will prolong it.

Apart from Finland, Spain has also unofficially suggested it could cease the restrictions, and a couple of countries implied they would decide partially on the basis of other member states' position on the issue.

On the other hand, Germany and Austria have confirmed they will prolong the restrictions for another three years, or even five years.

The European Commission will in January publish its evaluation report on the impact of enlargement on the labour market of the old member states, and it will most likely call on all member states to lift their barriers.

"Posting" of workers more problematic

However, trade unions in some countries could still exert sufficient pressure on the national politicians to oppose the lifting of labour restrictions.

The Finnish unions are concerned about the potential surge of workers from the Baltic states and Poland.

Their concerns refer to previous cases of foreign workers "posted" to Finland, mainly form neighbouring Estonia, and working for lower salaries - which Finnish employees view as unfair competition and "social dumping".

However, media suggest trade unions could back down in their opposition if the Finnish government makes a clear committment to support the existing employment agreements in the country.

Finland has been involved in a similar lawsuit as Sweden at the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice, dealing with a conflict between a freedom of movement of EU workers and the need to respect their domestic labour rules, even if only agreed collectively between trade unions and employers ratherthan enshrined in law.

The case deals with the threat of industrial action by a Finnish trade union in response to the possible reflagging of the ferry "Rosella" from Finland to Estonia to allow the shipowners to benefit from lower Estonian crew costs.