Finansforbundet embarks om difficult debates

How do we create the necessary strong and spacious work communities when the employees are taking turns working from home and are rarely all physically together? What role do we as an association want to take in relation to promoting data ethics in the sector? How can we sensibly balance between solidarity in the unemployment system and individuality in supplementary unemployment insurance?

These were three of the questions that the 179 delegates to Finansforbundet’s extraordinary national meeting at Aalborg Kongres & Kultur Center (the Aalborg Congress & Culture Centre) discussed on Monday 27 September. It happened in a different set-up than is normally seen at a national meeting. The framework was a Parliament of three ministers, a president and nine political parties (Finansforbundet’s circle) with presidents, vice-presidents, rapporteurs and committee members, and some of the delegates had roles as press officers and journalists to communicate and report the legislative process, which would lead to political documents on flexible work life, data ethics and the prosperity of the future.

“The purpose is to make the political process as engaging and concrete as possible, as we are familiar with from the ordinary national meetings. But at the same time we want to wrap it in a slightly different form of solemnity than what we are used to in order to keep things separate”, said President of Finansforbundet Kent Petersen from the lectern to the delegates.

Progress and curiosity

The debates on the three topics on the association’s political agenda in the coming years were characterised by progress and curiosity throughout the afternoon.

In the field of data ethics, Finansforbundet’s work on a code of data ethics and the establishment of a data ethics committee in collaboration with employers should reach a conclusion. And even though the financial sector is becoming increasingly data-driven, human beings must remain the most important thing. Employers should not be able to dismiss employees based on what an algorithm says about individual productivity.

With regard to the prosperity of the future, the established committee at the national meeting concluded that there should be a focus on spaciousness in the labour market and that careers and talent have no age. Work must be done for later careers – for seniors to have the desire and opportunity to stay in the labour market longer than they are now.

       (Fotos: Søren Schnorr)

Trust, dialogue and curiosity must be the prerequisites for flexible work life. One recommendation was that there must be room for everyone in a strong community that can accommodate individual choice. Another recommendation is that managers should be prepared to lead in a flexible everyday life, where employees can work from different locations.

Vice-President of Finansforbundet Michael Budolfsen thanked the delegates for the work they have done to develop the association’s policies on the three issues.
“We now have three documents that we will continue to work on in the near future. These are appendices to the official minutes of the national meeting and points of attention and guidelines that we will focus on”, said Michael Budolfsen at Finansforbundet’s extraordinary national meeting.