Finnish proposals extend rights

A working group of representatives of the government, unions and the employers has put forward a series of joint recommendations which extend employees' rights at work.

These involve revising Finland's current legislation on information consultation, increasing the number of workplaces covered and increasing its scope.

The threshold for the Act on Co-determination within Companies, which is currently set at 30 employees, will be cut to 20. The main union confederation, SAK, calculates that this will bring some 2,600 new businesses with 80,000 employees within the scope of the legislation.

The planned revisions will require employers to consult in greater detail over training and staffing levels and also to take work-life balance issues into account.

Subcontracting is also included for the first time. As Lauri Lyly, the SAK representative on the working party explained: "If the use of subcontractors or agency workers substantially affects the position of staff … then this use will have to be negotiated".

The proposals, which in part are the result of an EU directive on information and consultation, will be debated by the Finnish parliament in the autumn.

In Lyly's view the revised Act will be "more straightforward and will give employees more say at work".