Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2004, published 93rd ILC session (2005)

Labour Statistics Convention, 1985 (No. 160) - Finland (Ratification: 1987)

The Committee takes note of the Government’s report containing information which replies in part to its previous comments, as well as the indication that the new Statistics Act was enacted on 23 April 2004. It would be grateful if the Government would send a copy of this Act.

The Committee also notes the observation made by the Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) on the application of Articles 9 and 11 of the Convention.

Article 9. SAK supplements its 1999 statement and points to the lack of consistency between statistics of hours of work compiled by Statistics Finland on the basis of the labour force survey, and statistics of earnings, which are produced mainly from employers’ surveys. The SAK indicates that cross-tabulations by industry, sector, etc. are problematic. In its opinion, statistics based on weekly and/or annual hours of work (i.e. implicitly, from employers’ surveys) would supplement the present statistics in the way presumed by this Article (paragraph 1).

Considering in this regard that, statistics of hours of work should ideally be compiled at the same time as earnings from the structure of earnings surveys (SES), the Committee refers to its previous comments and once again asks the Government whether it intends to compile and publish statistics of average hours of work (normal hours and hours paid for) and statistics of wage and salary rates, which would be derived from the annual structure of earnings survey and would be compatible with the corresponding earning statistics. The Committee also draws the Government’s attention to the fact that this question, as well as the possible introduction of questions on annual hours of work, should be discussed by all the partners involved in the collection of these statistics, namely Statistics Finland, employers’ and workers’ organizations and the Ministry of Labour.

The Committee also notes that statistics of time rates of wages and normal hours of work by occupation (paragraph 2), which used to be communicated to the ILO for publication in the October Inquiry, seem to be no longer available. It asks the Government to indicate whether such statistics are still compiled and published and, if so, from which source. It further requests the Government to keep the ILO informed of any developments in this field.

Article 11. The SAK emphasizes that the labour cost statistics (LCS) compiled in 1990, 1996 and 2000 are not representative of the economy as a whole since in 2000 they covered less than half of wage and salary earners. The Committee noted previously that the representativity of labour cost statistics in terms of employee coverage has been a constant concern to EUROSTAT and member States for a number of years. It should be noted that it is often more difficult to collect data on labour costs in the services sectors than in the industrial sectors. The revision of the EC Regulations provides for harmonized definitions of LCS and structure of earnings surveys (SES). The Committee is of the opinion that, as a consequence, the results of both the SES and the LCS should gain in representativity.

The Committee is addressing a request directly to the Government concerning certain points.