Finland to follow Sweden’s Samhall employment model

At the request of Minister of Employment Tuula Haatainen, Finnish Customs Director-General Hannu Mäkinen has formulated a proposal to improve the opportunities of people with partial work ability to find employment.

Mäkinen proposed that Finland should take a Swedish company, Samhall, as a model but adapt it to the Finnish needs, said the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment in a press release.

The new intermediate labour market operator would improve the transition of people with partial work ability to the open labour market.

By combining adequate services and actual work, the intermediate labour market would provide jobs for those who otherwise would not be able to achieve this transition.

“The new Finnish model proposed by Rapporteur Hannu Mäkinen is needed,” said Haatainen at the publication of the report on Tuesday.

“Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government wants to increase the employment opportunities of people with partial work ability and disabilities significantly,” said the minister.

The government is set to make decisions on the intermediate labour market in its spending limits discussion in spring 2021. The operations would start in 2022 at the latest.

“Samhall employs 25,000 people with partial work ability, and based on the number of employees, it is the largest public company in Sweden. Finland should go in the same direction,” said Haatainen.

The most important reform of the proposal would entail the founding of a new business operator to employ people with partial work ability.

The Finnish model would combine work in an employment relationship and services required by the jobseekers based on their work abilities.

The model proposed by Mäkinen would solve the main obstacles to the employment of people with partial work ability.

Reforms to improve the employment of people with partial work ability have already been launched in the government’s working capacity programme.

These include developing employment services, introducing conditions on employment in public procurement projects, and developing the operating conditions of social enterprises.

Mäkinen’s proposal emphasises that the new intermediate labour market operator must complement the existing employment services.

It is not the intention of the new intermediate labour market to employ people who could be employed somewhere else. The new operator and the public support it receives also should not distort competition.

According to Minister Haatainen, it is also important that the expertise of organisations, foundations, and associations is utilised in creating the Finnish intermediate labour market.

“In order for the Finnish model to be successful, it is important we reach a situation in our society where different communities and companies want to bear their social responsibility by employing people with partial work ability that are in a disadvantaged position,” said Rapporteur Hannu Mäkinen.

The government’s reform of employment policy has three parts. One of them involves municipal experiments and the transfer of employment services to the local level. The second part builds a Nordic model of close and individual employment services with a reasonable system of sanctions.

The creation of an intermediate labour market as proposed by Mäkinen would form the third part of Finland’s new employment policy.