Finnish legislation concerning consultations between employers and employees was updated at the beginning of 2022. The rules set out in the revised Cooperation Act aim to facilitate open dialogue in the workplace and ensure that employees have access to information and the opportunity to influence decisions that concern them. This article provides an overview of the new rules.

Nature of consultation remains the same

Like its predecessor, the new Cooperation Act applies if a company regularly employs 20 or more employees. The calculation is based on the number of employees, not person years. For example, two part-time employees who regularly work half a week each count as two employees when assessing whether the company falls within the scope of the Act.

The new Act preserves cooperation negotiations as a strictly internal matter. The parties to the negotiations are:

• the employer, represented by a management-elected figure (eg, the chief executive officer, human resources manager or a line manager); and
• the employees, represented by the shop steward, another type of employee representative or, in case no representative has been selected, all the employees as a collective.

Labour unions are not officially party to the negotiations, although they may assist and support the shop steward between the negotiations

Employer's word is final

The other fundamental aspect of the cooperation process, the employer's obligation to listen and provide the employees' representatives with...

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