Lag om samarbete inom företag

Kapitlet är märkt “Allmänna bestämmelser”.

This provision states the law’s purpose: to promote cooperation between a company and its staff by giving employees timely and sufficient information, and to improve employees’ ability to influence workplace decisions.

This section sets employee-count thresholds for when the law applies to companies.

This section defines “företag” for this law.

Lagen gäller inte i vissa statliga, kommunala, kyrkliga och Åländska ämbetsverk eller inrättningar, och den gäller inte heller för vissa företagsbeslut om syfte eller ideella mål.

This section points to other laws that regulate employee participation, consultation, and related information duties.

Arbetsrådet får ge utlåtanden om whether a company should be treated as covered by this law.

This provision says the employer and the company’s personnel are parties to cooperation under the law, and sets out who takes part in cooperation negotiations.

The section says who may represent employee groups in cooperation negotiations and when workers may choose a cooperation representative.

If a consultation matter concerns workers in more than one personnel group, it must be handled in a joint meeting. The employer and employee-group representatives may also agree on a joint delegation and on how it works.

The employer must give employee representatives certain financial information and, in some cases, share it with all staff.

Employers must give employee-group representatives annual wage statistics, and on request provide wage data by occupational group. The information must be presented so individual employees cannot be identified.

Employers must, every quarter and on request by employee group representatives, give them a report on the number of temporary and part-time workers in the company.

Employers must, on request from employee-group representatives, give an annual report on the principles used for using outsourced labour under a subcontracting agreement, and the report must state where, in what tasks, and during which periods the labour is used.

After receiving the relevant information, employee representatives may ask the employer specific questions, and in certain cases employees have the same right; the employer must answer within a reasonable time.

At cooperation negotiations, the parties must discuss hiring practices, onboarding information for new employees, and how employee data is collected during hiring and employment, taking into account the privacy law.

Companies must annually prepare a personnel plan and training goals in cooperation negotiations, and update them when layoffs for economic or production reasons are handled.

Employers must notify employee representatives when considering hiring leased workers, and the notice must state the number, duties, workplace, contract period, and the periods of use. The employee representative may request co-operation negotiations within two working days, the negotiations must start within a week, and the employer may not sign the contract while the negotiations are ongoing, except in stated short-term or non-regular work situations.

The principles and practice of the company’s internal information activity must be dealt with in cooperation negotiations.

Vid samarbetsförhandlingar ska vissa planer, principer och praxis behandlas.

Before certain plans or changes are put into use in the company, their grounds, goals, purpose, and effects must be discussed cooperatively with representatives of the affected employee groups.

The employer must start the matter early enough before cooperation negotiations begin, and must also tell the time and place where the negotiations will start.

The employer must give the employee-group representatives the information it has and that is needed to handle the matter before cooperation negotiations begin.

If a staff representative requests consultation to begin, the employer must start consultation negotiations as soon as possible or promptly give a written explanation why they are not needed.

This section says the rules on minutes for co-operation negotiations, and on correcting and confirming those minutes, are in section 54.

An employer is treated as having fulfilled the cooperation duty in this chapter when it has acted as required by the chapter.

The employer must provide information about certain matters handled in cooperation negotiations, or about the content and timing of decisions made after those negotiations end.

The employer or a representative of a personnel group may submit a negotiation initiative on the listed workplace matters, and the initiative must briefly explain the matter and the reasons for it.

The employer must provide necessary information to employee representatives, notify them immediately if negotiations are considered unnecessary, and issue the negotiation notice. Agreements from these negotiations must generally be in writing, and an open-ended agreement may be terminated with six months’ notice unless the parties agree otherwise.

Avtal om arbetsreglementen och initiativverksamhet är bindande för arbetsgivaren och berörda arbetstagare. Arbetsgivaren ska informera på arbetsplatsen, och avtalet gäller normalt en månad efter att information har getts.

Om arbetsgivaren och de behöriga företrädarna för personalgrupperna inte når avtal i samarbetsförhandlingar, ska personalgruppernas behöriga företrädare besluta i vissa frågor.

Om vissa arbetsregler inte kan avtalas fram får arbetsgivaren besluta inom sin behörighet, men får inte ensidigt fastställa företagets arbetsreglementen eller ändringar i dem.

Vid samarbetsförhandlingar ska konsekvenser för personalen behandlas för flera typer av verksamhetsändringar, och vissa planerade ändringar kan också medföra att bestämmelserna i 8 kap. ska tillämpas.

At cooperation negotiations, certain significant changes in work tasks, working methods, work arrangements, work premises, transfers, and regular working hours must be addressed, unless a collective agreement binding on the employer provides otherwise.

The employer must discuss the grounds, effects, and alternatives of a planned change before deciding, and may need to negotiate separately with affected workers or their representatives.

The employer must start cooperation negotiations as early as possible and at the same time notify the time and place where they begin.

Employer must give affected employees or their representatives the information needed to handle a matter before co-operation negotiations begin.

If a group representative requests cooperation negotiations, the employer must start negotiations as soon as possible or promptly give a written explanation for not doing so.

An employer is treated as having fulfilled its negotiation duty when it has acted as required by sections 34–36 and the matters have been handled cooperatively and with a view to agreement.

This section says the rules on minutes of cooperation negotiations, and on correcting and certifying those minutes, are found in section 54.

The employer must inform staff representatives or affected employees about certain matters handled in co-operation negotiations, or about decisions made after those negotiations, and about when the decision will be implemented.

When a business is transferred, the transferor and transferee must inform employee representatives about the transfer and its effects.

Förvärvaren ska låta personalgruppernas företrädare ställa preciserande frågor och svara på dem, och arbetsgivaren ska på begäran lämna vissa uppgifter till hela personalen enligt interna informationsrutiner.

Bestämmelserna i detta kapitel om överlåtelse av rörelse gäller också fusion och delning av företag.

This section says the chapter applies when an employer is considering or planning layoffs, furloughs, or transfers to part-time work for economic or production reasons.

An employer planning redundancies, layoffs, or moving employees to part-time work must make a written negotiation request at least five days before negotiations start.

Certain dismissals, layoffs, and transfers to part-time work must be handled with employee representatives or, for individual cases, may be handled directly with the employee and employer. The employee has a right to demand negotiations through a representative.

Employers must give written information to employee representatives in certain layoff, dismissal, or part-time-transfer situations.

Employer must submit the negotiation notice, or the information in it, in writing to the employment office by the start of cooperation negotiations, unless that information was already provided earlier.

Employers planning redundancies must, at the start of cooperation negotiations, provide an employment-promoting action plan or propose action principles, and they must promptly work with labour authorities to identify public employment services.

If an employer is considering business decisions that clearly would lead to dismissals, layoffs, or moves to part-time work, the grounds, effects, action principles or plan, and ways to limit and soften the workforce reduction must be discussed in co-operation negotiations.

Arbetsgivaren anses ha fullgjort sin förhandlingsskyldighet när förhandlingar har förts under viss minimitid, beroende på ärendets omfattning och företagets storlek.

This section says the rules on minutes for co-operation negotiations, including adjustment and certification of the minutes, are found in section 54.

After completing the negotiation duty, the employer must give employee representatives a general report on the decisions being considered, and the report must include key workforce-reduction details.

On request, the employer must prepare minutes of the co-operation negotiations, and those present must sign and certify them unless the parties agree otherwise.

Employee representatives may consult experts and obtain information from them during preparation for cooperation procedures and at cooperation negotiations; experts are also exempted from work and compensated for loss of income under section 56.

A personnel group representative has a right to enough time off work for statutory tasks and cooperation training, and the employer must pay compensation for lost income or agreed time spent on related tasks.

Certain workers, worker representatives, and an expert named in section 55 must keep specified cooperation-related information confidential.

If a matter in cooperation negotiations should also be handled under a collective agreement’s negotiation order binding on the employer, the cooperation negotiations must not start or must be stopped if the employer or a shop steward requests that route.

Arbetsgivaren behöver inte lämna ut uppgifter till arbetstagare eller personalgruppsrepresentanter om utlämnandet enligt en objektiv bedömning skulle skada företaget eller dess verksamhet.

The employer may make certain decisions without prior cooperation negotiations if serious, previously unknown reasons would block negotiations. When those reasons no longer exist, the employer must start cooperation negotiations without delay and explain the reasons for the departure from the usual procedure.

Employer and employee nationwide associations may deviate by agreement from certain rules, but not from the rules on dismissal of at least ten workers in sections 47 and 48.

An employer who dismisses, lays off, or moves a worker to part-time work and fails to follow sections 45–51 may have to pay compensation of up to 30,000 euros.

The Government Council must adjust the maximum compensation under section 62 every three years by regulation to reflect changes in monetary value.

A court may order an employer to perform its duty within a set time and may attach a fine if the employer fails to provide required information to employee representatives. The Ministry of Labour may ask the court for such an order if the employer fails to prepare a personnel plan and training goals and the matter cannot clearly be handled through cooperation procedure.

Employers must keep this law freely available to employees at the workplace.

Arbetsministeriet, and certain nationwide collective-agreement organizations, supervise compliance with this law.

Employers or their representatives who intentionally or negligently violate specified cooperation-related provisions may be fined.

This section says the law takes effect on 1 July 2007, repeals the 1978 law on company cooperation, and replaces certain legal references to that repealed law with this law.

This transitional section lets certain existing agreements continue temporarily, applies the law later to some employers with 20–29 employees, and requires employer duties under section 16 to be completed within six months after the law starts.