Tehy demands: HUS must immediately cease its outrageous treatment of people — HUS pressures employees to make major decisions with inhumane deadlines

Tehy demands the management of HUS Helsinki University Hospital to stop the inhumane pressuring and outrageous treatment of its employees. A massive wave of layoffs and work location changes has started today at HUS with inhumane measures. The employer summoned nearly 40 employees of Lohja Hospital to hearings on Wednesday evening, which is a very short notice.

Image text
Picture: Jukka Rapo

Some of those invited to the hearings were dismissed immediately. Others were offered a job at another location from the beginning of December onwards and were required to give their decision within an hour.

HUS stated that it would dismiss the employee if they did not accept the new location unilaterally imposed by the employer. These workplaces are located in completely different cities.

With this practice, HUS effectively changes the employment contracts of its employees unilaterally during the notice period, which is not only inappropriate, but also coercive towards the employees.

Tehy President Millariikka Rytkönen finds HUS’s actions shocking. Rytkönen states that an hour to decide on a new place of work is entirely inadequate. An hour is not enough time for anyone to evaluate and express an opinion on such a major, life-changing matter.

HUS’s behaviour is unspeakably outrageous and unreasonable. For some, life circumstances, family or children may make it impossible to work in other cities. Tehy demands HUS to stop the inhumane pressuring, act in accordance with the law and give people adequate time to consider, Rytkönen says.

Tehy demands a complete and immediate change of course from the HUS management and will also present this demand directly to HUS’s human resources management on Thursday.

The matter is very simple: these employees are people. They are people who have given their all for HUS and their workplace. They must be treated like people, says Rytkönen.

Tehy provides legal support and advice to its members who have been subjected to inappropriate pressuring or have been dismissed. Tehy and its union representatives are behind its members 100%.

Tehy also criticised the fact that HUS has spent an incredibly short time, just 15 minutes, discussing the case of each employee. It is not possible for the employee to be heard in that time.

HUS has been conducting controversial, massive cooperation negotiations throughout the autumn, with the aim of laying off and terminating the employment of 800 employees. Tehy has already previously assessed that HUS is in breach of the Co-operation Act.

Enquiries:
Tehy Executive Director Else-Mai Kirvesniemi, tel. +358 50 346 0847, [email protected]