Finland

• Author: Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (European Commission), European Centre of Expertise (ECE)
• Pages: 16-17

Flash Re por t 1 2/2018

Decem ber 20 18

16

Finland

Sum ma ry

(I ) Govern men t h as br ough t a Proposal for Amend ing the Em ploy ment Cont ract s Act

bef ore the Parliam ent.

(I I) Th e Labo ur Cour t has issued a jud gement con cerning dism issal protect ion.

__ _ _ __ ___ _ _ __ ___ _ _ ___ _ _ __ ___ _ _ __ ___ _ _ __ ___ _ _ ___ _ _ __ ___ _ _ __ ___

1 Nation al Le gislat ion

1.1 Dism issa l pr otectio n

The governm ent has published Proposal ( 227/ 201 8) for Amending Em ploym ent

Cont ra cts Act Chapt er 7 Sect ion 2 ( 55 / 200 1, her eina ft er ECA) an d Em plo ym ent Secu rit y

Act Chapter 2 a, Section 1 (12 90/ 2002) . The amendm ent concerns indiv idual grounds

for term in at ing employ m en t contract . According to ECA 7: 1 there m ust alw ay s be a

pr oper and im por tan t r eason for a ter min ati on. The int erpr etat ion of th is re quir em ent is

specified in t he am endment: wh en evalu at ing th e gr ounds, the n umber of employ ees

as well as t he o verall circu mst ances of t he employ er and t he em ployee are to be taken

into accou nt.

The pur pose of the amendm ent is to ensure t h at the special circumstances of sm all

employer u nits are sufficient ly taken in t o account when evaluating the individual

grounds of term in at ion. Act ually , t he on ly change in t he r egulat ion is t hat t he num ber

of em ployees is specified now. The circum stances of t he em ploy er and the em p loyee

ha ve b een in clud ed i nt o ECA 7 : 2 al rea dy, an d i n t he lega l p rax is t he size of th e em pl oye r

(r elevant fact s such as the num ber of em ploy ees, financial circum st ances etc.) have

been tak en in to accoun t f or d ecades.

The m ain reason f or drafting the proposal were huge political strikes in Fin land . The

main rea son for the st rik es was that t he ori ginal i dea o f t he g over nment wa s to abol ish

all g roun ds for indiv idually -based ter min ation of employm ent cont racts i n un dert akin gs

with less t h an 20 employees. After t he strikes taking place, the proposal w as

supplem ent ed by tw o w or ds, num ber of em p loyees, which, as mentioned, h ad been

ta ken in to acco unt w hen ev alua tin g ind ivid ual ( ECA 7: 2) a nd fin anci al ( ECA 7 :3 ) gr oun ds

of t er m ination as lon g as case law on dismissal pr otect ion has exist ed. As a fur t her

resul t of these events, the w aiti ng p eriod for receiv ing unem ploym ent ben efit s aft er an

em ploy ee-based t erm inat ion was sho rtened fr om thr ee m ont hs t o two mont hs.

The Am endm ent is m eant to com e into force 0 1 Jul y 201 9.