UPM wants to transfer 300 forestry workers to its prospective subcontractors Helsinki (26.09.2006 - In its 11 September press release UPM stated as follows: "UPM is to explore the possibility of restructuring its forestry work to improve cost-efficiency. During the autumn, the company will search for prospective partners and assess their ability to offer different types of forestry work services." The company's idea is to offer the forestry workers, currently in its employ, to these forestry work service providers. The union regards the plan as unrealistic and damaging for the company. "It risks UPM's quality system and realization of the certificate's criteria", the union says, referring to the social clauses of the PEFC forest certificate system. According to the union the plan threatens to become a dangerous precedent. "Never before employees have been contracted out to companies that do not even exist", the union says. In the last few years the union has had bad experiences with several forestry work service companies. Unpaid wages has been one of the major problems. "In Finland, there are not sufficiently responsible forestry work service companies that could take responsibility of all work done until now by UPM's own forestry workers", UPM Forestry's shop-stewards argue. Therefore they believe that UPM is considering the possibility of acquiring such services from abroad. As a considerable amount of work is anticipated in forests owned by UPM, the plan, to get rid of the company's own forestry workers must inevitably mean a policy to further dump wages and other terms of employment. In the event a UPM forestry worker should opt to reject his removal to a vague subcontractor and give notice from his job, he would then loose considerable social benefits. Either alternative would mean the company thinks it can renege on the corporate social responsibility principles UPM has signed up to. Read also:
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