HELSINKI (Reuters Life!) - Finnish lawmakers will consider
granting working adults annual "love leave" and how to teach
school children about being human as part of efforts to improve
the nation's emotional quality of life.
Finnish MP Tommy Tabermann has submitted both ideas as
formal proposals to parliament in the wake of a school shooting
tragedy that shook the Nordic nation last year.
The two proposals are aimed at helping to reduce the number
of divorces, the high number of people suffering from
depression and to stop bullying in schools and at work, the
first term Social Democrat (SDP) MP said.
"Next week we are making history talking about love in the
parliament," Tabermann told Reuters on Friday.
He said research has shown that working Finns want more
time with loved ones rather than higher wages, and that
families with small children are under particularly high
pressure.
"There is quite a large societal vision behind this. But it
is fully based on facts, it is not humbug. It is not a sex
leave, but in much wider sense gives people a chance to
maintain their relationships," Tabermann said.
The week-long "relationship leave" would be given to all
employees each year, enabling Finns to spend time with loved
ones, see relatives and visit the sick in hospital, he said.
Depression treatment costs Finnish taxpayers 500 million
euros ($770.4 million) a year and half of all marriages end in
divorce.
Tabermann said his proposal for teaching children how to
"be human" at school stemmed from a bullying problem and that a
quarter of school kids suffer from depression in a nation whose
education system is ranked as one of the best by world bodies
like the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) and the United Nations.
The normally peaceful Nordic nation shook in November last
year when 18-year-old student Pekka-Eric Auvinen shot dead
eight people at his school in Jokela, southern Finland before
shooting himself in the head. It later surfaced that Auvinen
had been bullied at school.
Tabermann, who is also a poet and author, said the
parliament is due to take his proposals to the social and
health committee for consideration after next week's session.
(Reporting by Sami Torma, editing by Paul Casciato)