Ruka Nordic and sports club clash over volunteer payments

Ruka Nordic Oy and Kuusamon Erä-Veikot have failed to agree on arrangements for volunteer work at the World Cup events, Yle reports. The sports club says the compensation offered for the work is entirely insufficient, while the event organiser considers it reasonable.

Ruka Nordic Oy, which is owned by the Finnish Ski Association, asked Erä-Veikot to provide work packages for the event. The proposal included set hours that would determine the compensation paid to the club’s volunteers.

Erä-Veikot says the proposed hours are significantly lower than the actual amount of work required. Ruka Nordic board chair Sirpa Korkatti said the compensation offered to the club had been “entirely, and especially, reasonable”.

Ruka Nordic says negotiations are over

Korkatti said there was no reason to continue negotiations over volunteer work for this year’s event.

“As far as this year’s event is concerned, the matter has been dealt with. We cannot stretch this out indefinitely because we need to move forward with the event arrangements,” she said.

Erä-Veikkojen chair Matti Heikkilä questioned how the arrangements would be handled if the club did not take part.

The club has an agreement to spread stored snow on the ski tracks, at the stadium and at the ski-jumping hill. Ruka Nordic would be responsible for finding volunteers for other tasks, including ticket sales and crowd control.

“These tasks require a lot of people, around 700. Who will do this volunteer work now?” Heikkilä said.

Korkatti said preparations were progressing well. She said a good number of volunteers had registered from different places and that several arrangements had been agreed with various operators.

Club remains open to talks

Heikkilä said most of the volunteers had previously come to the event through Erä-Veikot.

“Now a large part of these volunteers are missing. Time is running out; it will soon be September,” he said.

Heikkilä said the sports club remained willing to negotiate with Ruka Nordic, despite the failure to reach an agreement in the initial talks.

Kuusamon Erä-Veikot has handled most of the recruitment of volunteers and the practical organisation of the races throughout the event’s history. Ruka Nordic, owned by the Finnish Ski Association, has led the organisation for the second year.