Tekijä (17.04.2024 - Heikki Jokinen) The act on Co-operation within Undertakings stipulates the employer must give relevant information to employees. It regulates obligatory cooperation negotiations with employees in any situation where their position or work will undergo changes, like redundancies.

The law states when the employer must begin negotiations, how to proceed and for how long the negotiations must take.

The employer must follow the law carefully and employees shall be heard. If this does not happen, the law includes sanctions for employers. Without obligatory negotiations, the employer can quite freely present motivations for changes and redundancies as employees do not have the relevant information concerning the company’s true financial situation.

The Orpo-Purra Government will also scrap the duty to re-engage dismissed workers in businesses with fewer than 50 employees. The duty applies when an employee has previously been made redundant for reasons related to company economy or production.

If the employer needs inside 4 months an employee for the same or similar tasks to those of the redundant employee, the work must first be offered to the redundant employee. He or she has no obligation to take the job. But, in case of a missing job offer, the employee might have the right to compensation.