I have heard that there will be amendments to labor legislation. What should I know about it?

Our employment lawyer answers

It is true that the Finnish government is making many amendments and impairments to labor legislation. In 2024, new restrictions on employees’ right to strike came into force when the Government amended the Collective Agreements Act and the Act on Mediation in Labor Disputes. There were restrictions on the organization of sympathy industrial action and political industrial action. Please note that employees still have the right to participate in the strikes of the collective agreement round. The unions will provide instructions on the matter on a case-by-case basis.

Amendments to the mediation system and the reform of local bargaining that were objected to by the employees entered into force in January 2025.  The amendments may not be immediately visible in day-to-day work, but they may affect the negotiations and level of terms of employment and salary increases. Local bargaining at workplaces will increase, and it is even more important that a shop steward or shop steward has been elected for the workplace to take care of the employees’ interests.

The Bakery Employment Act has been proposed to be repealed during spring 2025 by removing the special regulation on the night work allowance for bakery workers. Going forward, the Act would no longer include a 100 per cent supplement for night work, but any night work compensation would be agreed on in the collective agreement.

The amendment of the Act on Co-operation within Undertakings will have a very concrete impact on the members of Professionals of Business and Technology. It has been proposed that the Act be amended as of July 1, 2025, but the parliamentary processing of the matter is pending. According to the proposal, change negotiations would, as a rule, only need to be organized in companies and organizations with a regular head count of at least 50 employees. Currently, the minimum is 20 employees.  However, the Act would provide for certain obligations concerning lightened dialog and change negotiations for employers with between 20 and 49 employees. In addition, the duration of change negotiations would be cut by 50%. In practice, the aim is probably to speed up changes, layoffs and dismissals on financial and production-related grounds.

Changing the personal grounds for dismissal is also on the government''s agenda. The aim seems to be to facilitate the dismissal of employees, and the change may also have wider impacts on working life. The change is unlikely to take effect in 2025.

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