The labour market is at a turning point and we cannot close our eyes to it. MP Anders Adlercreutz suggests that we need a combinatory form of insurance that covers both entrepreneurs and salaried employees.
“These days, people can change careers and, above all, their roles, several times during their working lives.Sometimes they are employers; at others, employees. Sometimes entrepreneurs and at others, someone else’s workers. Our social security system has not changed, however: we have separate systems for those who employ others and those who are employed. This causes diverse problems and above all a lack of flexibility,” says Adlercreutz.
Adlercreutz points out that there are currently around 190,000 sole traders in Finland.
“It is in many ways a positive things. These days, people’s attitudes towards entrepreneurship are much better than even a couple of decades ago. But at the same time it can be a negative symptom: while many choose entrepreneurship because they want to, there are lots of people who do it because there is no alternative. Some companies choose to buy services from a self-employed person rather than employing someone, because they feel that the risks of employment are too high,” Adlercreutz says.
Adlercreutz feels that this must be tackled by reforming the labour market and reducing the burden and risk on employers, as well as by lowering the threshold for switching back and forth between entrepreneurship and employment.
“SFP has long been advocating for combinatory insurance as a solution to this issue. It would be a social security policy that stays in place even if you switch between being self-employed and employed by someone else. It would remove one of the obstacles from today’s labour market: the fear of losing benefits that makes people hesitate to set out on their own,” Adlercreutz explains.
“We cannot afford a system that does not cater to our actual reality. The world has changed. The reality in which people walk in through factory gates at the age of 21 and out again at retirement age no longer exists. Our social security system must recognise this,” Adlercreutz concludes.
