Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2016, published 106th ILC session (2017)

Termination of Employment Convention, 1982 (No. 158) - Finland (Ratification: 1992)

The Committee notes the observations of the Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), the Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff in Finland (AKAVA), the Finnish Confederation of Professionals (STTK) and the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK), communicated together with the Government’s report.

The Committee notes the information provided by the Government in response to its previous comments, indicating that the wage subsidy system was reformed through the adoption of Act No. 1366/2014, which amended the Act on Public Employment and Business Services, entering into force on 1 January 2015. Act No. 1366/2014 establishes a sliding scale for wage subsidies that increases the amount and maximum duration of the subsidy the longer the person has been unemployed. Subsidies are facilitated where the person is over 60 years of age and has been unemployed continuously for at least 12 months. In addition, the Government indicates that subsidies granted due to disability or illness may be permanent where the employment and economic development office determines that the impairment is of a permanent nature.

Articles 2(2) and (3) of the Convention. Adequate safeguards against recourse to fixed-term employment contracts. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that the number of persons employed in government agencies and institutions on fixed-term contracts declined during the reporting period, from 13.9 per cent in 2011 to 12.5 per cent in 2015. The Government adds that the number of central government personnel has declined significantly, having dropped to 3.1 per cent of all persons in employment.

Act No. 873/2012 amending Chapter 2, section 4 of the Employment Contracts Act No. 55/2001 entered into force on 1 January 2013. Act No. 873/2012 applies to all fixed-term employment relationships and require employees in such relationships to be informed of the date of termination of the contract, or its estimated date of termination, including whether it is connected to the completion of the work, the end of a period of substitution, or some other objective reason.

The Government indicates that, according to subsection 4, the information must be provided upon request of the temporary agency employee, even if the contract has been made for less than one month. The Government adds that this subsection was supplemented so that when a temporary agency worker on a fixed term contract is assigned for use by a user-employer, the information provided by the temporary work agency must include details about the reason for and duration, or estimated duration, of the assignment. This obligation aims to provide temporary agency workers with the possibility of determining, based on the duration and reason for the user enterprise’s order underlying the temporary agency contract, whether there are legal justifications for signing a fixed-term temporary agency worker’s contract. The Committee notes that the 2013 amendments to the Employment Contracts Act take into account a 2012 Supreme Court decision that examined a situation in which the company providing temporary employers (temporary agency) had signed a fixed-term employment contract with an employee, and according to the contract’s terms, the fixed-term employment relationship would be terminated when the customer company’s (user enterprise) assignment for the employee ended. On the basis of the justifications stemming from the ruling of the Supreme Court it was held that the employment contract should be regarded as permanent. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on any further legislative developments, particularly any reforms of the Employment Contracts Act on facilitating the use of fixed-term employment contracts and extending trial periods and to provide a copy of such reforms once they are adopted. Please also continue providing information on the maximum length of use of fixed-term contracts and on the impact of the 2013 amendments to the Employment Contracts Act.

Article 13. Consultation of workers’ representatives concerning termination of employment for economic, technological, structural or similar reasons. In response to the Committee’s previous comments, the Government indicates that a tripartite working group had deliberated on problems in interpretation connected with the application of the 2014 Act on Cooperation Within Undertakings. The Cooperation Ombudsman raised the problems identified by the tripartite working group in a proposal to amend the Act, which was presented to the Ministry of Employment and the Economy and in a statement of the Labour Council. In addition, an amendment to the Act on Occupational Safety and Health Enforcement and Cooperation on Occupational Safety and Health at Workplaces (44/2006) is before Parliament for consideration. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information on the operation of the consultation mechanisms with workers’ representatives on terminations of employment for economic, technological, structural or similar reasons.

Application of the Convention in practice. The workers’ organizations observe that the 2013 amendments to the Employment Contracts Act clarify the legislation related to fixed-term employment contracts and increased the amount of information provided to temporary agency workers, enabling them to evaluate the basis for the fixed-term nature of their employment contract, thereby improving the situation of temporary agency workers. In addition, the workers’ organizations observe that the Act on the Contractor’s Obligations and Liability when Work is Contracted Out has been amended to require contractors to provide information upon request to staff representatives on the reasons for using temporary agency work. They consider that the legislative situation has improved, but point out that no studies have yet been carried out so far to determine the impact of the amendments in practice. The workers’ organizations observe that, in 2015, Statistics Finland found that 83,000 persons were on “on call” employment contracts in which they agreed to be called in to work only when needed, which in effect means that they are not entitled to a notice period. Such “on call” contracts are used in temporary agency work, but also increasingly in other employment relationships. The EK welcomes the steps taken by the Government to lower the threshold for employment by making it easier to sign fixed-term employment contracts and extending trial periods; however, it notes that the facilitation of fixed-term employment relationships remains a limited opportunity when compared to the objectives of the Government Programme. The EK noted that the reforms to the Employment Contracts Act are supported by the entrepreneur survey of April 2016, which included replies from 761 entrepreneurs, indicating that facilitating the use of fixed-term contracts would significantly increase their recruitment intentions. The Committee requests the Government to provide general information on the manner in which the Convention is applied in practice, including, for example, available statistics on the activities of the bodies of appeal (such as the number of appeals against unjustified dismissal, the outcome of such appeals, the nature of the remedy awarded and the average time taken for an appeal to be decided) and on the number of terminations for economic or similar reasons. Please also indicate any practical difficulties encountered in the implementation of the Convention, and measures taken or envisaged in this regard.