”Masanobu Furukawa from UA Zensen told delegates ( to the 2nd UNICARE World Conference in Rome in February 2019 ) that with the exploding elderly population in Japan, the need for collective bargaining agreements in the health sector is dire. Overcrowded care homes, burnout, stress and dangerous conditions are rife and unions are looking for solutions. The relationships built up through collective bargaining are a way to make sure that workers lives are improved.”
There is a serious situation in many private profit-based retirement homes and other social services in Finland as well. Here, under-staffing creates the kind of problems that also the Japanese health care professionals recognise. Strict minimum conditions through legislation combined with legally binding collective agreements is a solution.
In countries with well developed public social and health services such as Finland it makes no sense to outsource them to private profit-hungry multinationals like is being done here. In addition, the tax payers carry the costs and these huge companies themselves avoid taxes through internal expensive loan arrangements and ’tax planning’ that usually involves tax paradises.