Finnish government backs down 


The Finnish government has withdrawn proposals intended to make it easier to dismiss workers in companies employing 20 or fewer workers. 


Following strike action by the unions (see Labour Research, November 2018, page 8), the government agreed to negotiate its plans with the unions and the employers and came forward with a new legislative proposal on 8 November. 


This removes the fixed employee threshold but adds a specific reference to the number of employers to the existing law. This states that “the employer’s and the employee’s overall circumstances must be taken into account” when a dismissal is planned. 


The courts already take the number of employees into account in assessing whether a dismissal is justified and, on this basis, SAK, the main union confederation, believes that the new wording will make no difference.