ESPOO MAGAZINE 1/2021

Picks
At the end of December 2020, there were a total of 17,796 unemployed
people in Espoo and the unemployment rate was 12.2%. The national
unemployment rate was 13.6%.
Sortti Stations open
on three Saturdays
HELSINKI Region Environmental Services,
i.e. HSY, will be testing weekend
opening hours at the Konala
Sortti Station from 10 April onwards
on both Saturdays and Sundays. In
addition, all Sortti Stations will be
open on three Saturdays this spring:
17 April, 24 April and 8 May from
10:00 to 17:00.
HSY will first test the new opening
hours at just one station for a period
of one year and then make a decision
on the future. The locations of
the Sortti Stations and instructions
for sorting waste can be found at
hsy.fi/en/waste-and-recycling/sorttistations/.
The municipal
employment
trial was launched
THE Finnish municipal employment
trial was launched in Espoo on 1
March. The trial involves transferring
the customer accounts of 18,000 jobseekers
in Espoo from the TE Office
to the City of Espoo. The TE Office
will inform all the customers whose
accounts are transferred individually
about the change, and no action is
required from the customer themselves.
The accounts of all jobseekers
under the age of 30, all jobseekers
with an immigrant background
and all jobseekers receiving labour
market subsidy or basic unemploy-
ment allowance will be transferred to the
municipality.
Unemployed persons receiving earnings-related
unemployment allowance
will continue to be served by the TE
Office. In the future, the TE Office will
carry out certain tasks, such as registering
all unemployed jobseekers.
The purpose of this trial is to improve
access to the labour market, education
and services, especially for jobseekers
who have been unemployed for a long
period and who are in a vulnerable position
in the labour market, are young and/
or speak a foreign language as their native
tongue. In principle, statutory employment
services and municipalities’ own
services will continue to be offered as
before, but the aim is to also create new
solutions for the employment of jobseekers
and the availability of skilled labour
for companies.
The municipal employment trial is
being carried out by the Espoo Employment
Services. The name of the experiment
in Espoo is simply Employment
Espoo and the offices from which it is
run are located on the same premises
as the Espoo TE Office on Upseerinkatu,
Leppävaara.
Have your say in the municipal elections
BY voting in the municipal elections, you
can influence who will be representing
Espoo residents on the City Council
and other representative bodies of the
city and deciding on matters that affect
the everyday lives of the city residents.
In the elections, 75 councillors will be
elected to serve for the next four years.
As this magazine goes to press, there
is talk about the possibility of postponing
the municipal elections due to
the coronavirus. If the elections are not
postponed, the election day is Sunday
18 April 2021. Advance voting in Finland
Please
bring your
own pen!
will be held from 7 to 13 April 2021 and
abroad from 7 to 10 April 2021. Due to
the coronavirus pandemic, voters will be
asked to bring their own pen (preferably
a ballpoint pen) to the polling station, to
wear a face mask and keep an adequate
safe distance to other people.
You can vote in advance at any general
advance polling station. There are
11 advance polling stations in Espoo,
and you can find their addresses and
opening hours at espoo.fi/en-US/
City_of_Espoo/Influence/Elections/
Municipal_elections_2021. On election
day, you will only be able to vote at the
polling station that has been assigned
for you in the voting register and that is
given in the notification sent to you by
post. On election day, polling stations
are open from 9:00 to 20:00.
In certain cases, for example, if the
person entitled to vote has a limited
ability to move or act and they cannot
get to the polling station without
undue difficulty, they may vote in
advance from home. You must register
with the Espoo Central Election Committee
at the latest by 16:00 on 6 April
2021 if you need to vote from home.
Contact details: tel. 09 8167 3928 or
vaalit@espoo.fi.
6 A magazine for Espoo residents