Workplace Agreement Competence Center Databank
Current news for employers
The Cooperation Act is being reformed: changes that will enter into force on 1 July 2025
The amendments to the Co-operation Act raise the threshold for applying the law and shorten the duration of amendment negotiations.
The scope of the Act will be increased so that the Act will mainly apply only to companies employing at least 50 employees. The obligations regarding continuous dialogue will change so that a lighter dialogue obligation will apply to companies with 20–49 employees. The minimum negotiation periods for change negotiations will be reduced by half of the previous minimum periods. In addition, the Act will include a new minimum period of 30 days from the submission of a negotiation proposal to the termination of the employment relationship in certain situations.
The changes to the Cooperatives Act will enter into force on 1 July 2025. The guidelines for entrepreneurs have reviewed the upcoming legislative changes and their effects on companies.
Local bargaining in the new collective agreement for the technology industry (2025–2027)
The new collective agreement for the Technology Industries came into force on 22 February 2025. The collective agreement applies to the years 2025, 2026 and 2027. However, according to the agreement, the parties will review the implementation of its objectives for 2027 in August 2026, when the agreement can be terminated. The new collective agreement must also be applied in unorganized companies that comply with the collective agreement on the basis of universal applicability.
According to the collective agreement, wage increases are primarily agreed locally. Non-unionized employers can also take advantage of these opportunities for local agreement.
Wage subsidy rules will change on July 1, 2023
The aim of the wage subsidy reform is to simplify the system and increase the use of wage subsidy. The amount of wage subsidy will be harmonised so that in the future it will be 50 percent of wage costs. In the case of a person with reduced working capacity, the amount of wage subsidy will be 70 percent of wage costs. The employer cannot cover ancillary wage costs or holiday pay.
In the future, wage subsidy will generally be granted for five or ten months, depending on the duration of unemployment of the employee entitled to wage subsidy. Wage subsidy may be granted again to promote the employment of the same person in a new job without a so-called waiting period, as long as the conditions for the subsidy are met. As a rule, subsidy cannot be granted again to the same employer before three years have passed since the end of the wage subsidy period.
At the same time, a new employment subsidy for people aged 55 and over will be introduced, which will be granted without a suitability assessment if the conditions for the subsidy are met. The subsidy will be paid at 70 percent of eligible wage costs for a maximum period of 10 months.
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The employer's occupational safety obligations will be specified in a law that will enter into force on 1 June 2023.
The amendment to the Occupational Safety Act will enter into force on 1 June 2023. The amendments will clarify the employer's general duty of care, the factors to be taken into account when investigating and assessing occupational hazards, and the employer's obligations in the training and guidance provided to employees.
The changes are based on the government's goal of promoting the well-being of people over 55 years of age at work and reducing early retirement. In the future, employers must take the employee's personal circumstances into account more closely when implementing measures that affect occupational safety.
In the future, employers must pay attention to the impact of an employee's aging when identifying and assessing work hazards. When assessing risks, employers must also take into account stress factors related to the content of the work, work arrangements and the social functioning of the work community.
The changes clarify the current regulations. They are not new obligations, but the law will define more precisely than now what employers must take into account when complying with general occupational safety obligations.
Whistleblower Protection Act enters into force on 1 January 2023
The so-called whistleblowing law requires protection for people who report misconduct. The law is based on the EU's whistleblowing directive. The law creates a framework for how misconduct or illegal activity can be reported and what kind of protection is given to the whistleblower. The whistleblower is protected from retaliation, which means that the whistleblower may not be subject to adverse action because he or she has made a report.
Any irregularities observed in a company's operations must be reported primarily to the company's internal reporting channel, which allows the company to determine the appropriateness of the report and take any further action. If there is no internal reporting channel or the actions taken are insufficient, the reporter can report the matter to the authority's reporting channel or to the public.
Companies with at least 50 employees must establish an internal reporting channel. The reporting channel does not have to be technical and the company can decide whether the reporting channel accepts anonymous reports and whether the reporting channel is available to employees other than its own. The reporting channel can also be established voluntarily.
Companies with fewer than 250 employees are subject to a transition period, according to which an internal reporting channel must be implemented by December 17, 2023. In companies with at least 250 employees, an internal reporting channel must be implemented within three months of the law entering into force, i.e. by the end of March 2023.
Companies subject to the Money Laundering Act must establish a reporting channel regardless of the company's size. However, if the company already has a reporting channel in accordance with the Money Laundering Act, there is no need to establish a separate reporting channel.
The transition period for non-compete agreements ends on December 31, 2022.
The regulation regarding non-compete agreements for the period after the employment relationship changed from the beginning of 2022. If an employee's employment contract contains a non-compete clause or a separate non-compete agreement has been concluded with him or her that restricts the employee's right to transfer to a competing employer, the employee will in the future be entitled to compensation for the limitation period of the non-compete agreement.
Non-compete agreements concluded before 2022 are subject to a transition period that ends at the end of 2022. The changed provisions, including compensation, will only apply to these old non-compete agreements from 1 January 2023.
Non-compete agreements concluded before 1 January 2022 can be terminated without notice during the transition period. Employers should act during 2022 if they want to easily terminate unnecessary non-compete agreements before the new regulations come into effect. Termination should be made in writing.
A non-compete agreement can also be terminated after the end of the transition period. In this case, however, termination is not possible without a notice period, but the notice period of the non-compete agreement is one third of the length of the limitation period contained in it, but at least two months. Termination is also no longer possible after the employee has resigned and is entitled to compensation paid based on the non-compete agreement.
If the employee has resigned after the employer has terminated the non-compete agreement, the notice periods will run concurrently. If the notice period of the non-compete agreement still remains at the time of termination of the employment relationship, the employer is obliged to pay compensation to the employee for the remaining period of notice of the non-compete agreement.
Amendments to the Employment Contracts Act and the Working Hours Act on 1 August 2022
The Employment Contracts Act and the Working Hours Act will change on 1 August 2022. The changes concern the information provided to employees at the beginning of an employment relationship and the status of employees working with variable working hours contracts. The changes are partly based on the EU Employment Conditions Directive and partly on the implementation of the Government Programme.
At the beginning of the employment relationship, the employer must provide the employee with a written explanation of the key terms of the employment relationship, if the terms are not stated in the written employment contract. The deadline for providing the explanation is shorter than before and there is more information to be provided than before.
For variable working hours contracts, the new regulation requires a review of actual working hours every 12 months. If the review shows that the minimum working hours in the employment contract could be set higher, the employer should offer the employee an agreement to change the working hours.
Regarding variable working hours contracts, the Working Hours Act also includes new provisions on shift planning and situations where the employer cancels a shift marked on the shift list.
Parental allowances were reformed and the new law regarding them entered into force on 1 August 2022.
Parental allowances were reformed and the new law regarding them entered into force on 1 August 2022. You will receive parental allowances under the new law if your child's estimated date of birth was no earlier than 4 September 2022. In this case, the pregnancy allowance period will have started no earlier than 1 August 2022. However, if the child was born prematurely on 29 July 2022 or earlier, you will receive parental allowances under the old law. If your family has started receiving parental allowances earlier, they cannot be changed to comply with the new law on 1 August 2022. If you adopt, you will receive parental allowances under the new law if you took the child into care on 31 July 2022 or later.
The new Cooperation Act entered into force on 1 January 2022.
The Cooperatives Act applies to companies with at least 20 regular employees.
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