OREANDA-NEWS.   Fennovoima, Rusatom Overseas and Finnish labour market organizations on 20th May, 2014 signed a site agreement regarding common rules and procedures at the nuclear power plant that is to be constructed in Pyhajoki, Finland.

Fennovoima is committed to carry out the nuclear power plant project in a socially responsible way. Terms of employment of workers are managed in compliance with Finnish labour laws, and to prevent grey economy.

- The objective of the site agreement signed today is to settle the policies of cooperation and operating principles in advance, before actual construction work even begins. This is to ensure that everything on the Hanhikivi 1 -construction site with its thousands of international workers proceeds as proficiently as possible and within schedule, says Juha Nurmi, CEO of Fennovoima.

The site agreement is to settle the policies of cooperation that the construction site must comply with: it defines e.g. the procedures of information exchange and problem solving, operation of the representatives of labour unions on the site, and the ways to prevent grey economy in practice.

With this agreement Fennovoima implements the Finnish Parliament's Employment and Equality Committee's statement, which the Committee issued in connection with the Decision-in-Principle procedure in 2010. According to the statement, the overall benefit of the society requires that questions and possible problem situations related to the project are negotiated and agreed with the labour market organizations.

The site agreement signed today is based on work and negotiations started in 2012 within a working group led by Fennovoima. The group was established to settle the policies of cooperation and the methods to prevent grey economy. It includes representatives of the Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries RT, the Federation of Finnish Technology Industries, and the Finnish Energy Industries. Labour unions are represented by the Finnish Metalworkers' Union, Trade Union Pro, the Finnish Construction Trade Union and the Finnish Electrical Workers' Union.

The plant supply contract signed in December 2013 already takes into account contractor liability issues and the prevention of grey economy. Fennovoima and Rusatom Overseas have agreed on a site data system with which it is easy to regulate and manage information of sub-suppliers and their employees.