All prim and proper in sports and construction

When we brainstormed story ideas about sports, we had a somewhat critical perspective, envisioning a famous athlete giving a pep talk at a corporate seminar. But does hurdling, handball or high jump really have anything to do with how a company or organisation is run? Even for driven managers aiming to advance their careers?

However, it did not take us long to realise that if you look at sport as an occupation, you still face all the usual working life issues. How do you combine your job with your private life, especially when it involves a lot of travel? When so much is expected from you, is there a risk of burnout? And do coaches really have any job security or are they out the door after one lost match? 

But sports also play an important role, not only as training for working life but also in promoting inclusion and offering vulnerable youth an alternative to crime. 

“Training makes me physically stronger. But it is about much more than that. It also gives me discipline, mental strength, improved self-confidence and a feeling of achievement,” says Mattej Petrovic who ended four years of passivity thanks to the Boost project, which is run by the Rosengård football club in Malmö.

When the Nordic Labour Journal’s reporters suggest stories to cover in their patches, it is always exciting to see how they interpret a theme. This edition features stories about:

• The researcher who argues coaching as a profession must become more sustainable
• The Finn and Swede who play and coach football in Norway
• The Danish football player who is making history in the Faroe Islands
• The cross-country ski coach who hunts for gold – but not at any price
• The company sports programmes that make Icelanders ride their bikes to their workplace

From Finland, we received a completely unexpected perspective – there are often two different sports clubs within the same discipline and sport. This has a historical explanation rooted in the 1918 Finnish Civil War when the Finnish Sports Federation sided with the Whites. 

The Reds, who fought for the working class, formed their own sports clubs after the war. This division extended even to sports typically associated with the upper class, such as sailing.

Class war feels like an outdated concept. Are we not all enjoying the good life in the Nordic welfare states? Yet there is still exploitation and outright criminality on construction sites, in cleaning businesses and in the blueberry forests. 

Foreign labourers are not paid what they are due and their working conditions often fall short of being decent.

Just how bad the conditions can be was revealed in the Danish TV documentary The Black Swan, which unveiled how criminal gangs and corporate lawyers cooperate to defraud the state of millions, launder money and exploit foreign labour in violation of regulations meant to prevent social dumping. 

Hired labour often comes from the Baltics. For several years, there has been Nordic-Baltic cooperation in the fight against work-related crime. A seminar in Stockholm assessed how this cooperation can develop and become more efficient. 

“We have different skills and experiences from our work against work-related crime, so the collaboration and knowledge exchange between the Nordic and Baltic countries run both ways,” says Renars Lusis, Director of the Lithuanian State Labour Inspectorate.

An effective way to create more orderly conditions has been implemented in Norway. Last year, the government changed the regulations for temporary labour and introduced a ban in Oslo on the use of staffing agencies for temporary work. This had consequences for the construction of the new government quarter. 

“There was a considerable amount of staffing agencies involved in the project between January and June last year. When the ban came into effect, it all stopped,” says Øyvind Helle, the LO representative on the site.

Sixteen staffing companies have sued the Norwegian state, claiming that the ban violates the EEA Agreement, which grants Norway the same rights as EU countries in most areas. The matter will be decided by the EFTA Court this autumn.

The Nordic and Baltic countries’ cooperation takes place within the EU framework, where Ursula von der Leyen has been re-elected for a new five-year term as Commission President. 

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has expressed concern that there is no longer a Commissioner for Employment, following von der Leyen’s presentation of her new commissioners.

Instead, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the intensifying global competition between the major trading blocs – the US, EU, and China – get most of the attention. This has also led to political changes in the Nordic region.