Employee Representation in the Administration of Undertakings
In order to improve the employer's operations, to enhance cooperation between the employer and the employees and to empower the employees, the employees shall have the right to participate in decision-making in executive, supervisory or advisory bodies of the company which usually means the management group, board of directors or supervisory board.
Employees of Finnish companies with at least 150 employees on a regular basis are guaranteed the opportunity to have an influence. The law shall be applied to Finnish joint-stock companies, cooperatives and other economic societies, insurance companies, commercial banks, cooperative banks, and savings banks.
Administrative representation can be arranged through an agreement, or a procedure based on the law. The administrative representation of employees must be agreed in the first instance between the employer and the employees. If no agreement can be reached, employee representation shall take place at the request of the staff in accordance with Article 31 of the Act on Co-operation within Undertakings. Upon request, the ombudsman may grant a derogation from the arrangements for administrative employee representation.
Administrative representation may be carried out as agreed in a joint meeting between the employer and the representatives of the employee representative groups between the employer and at least two employee representative groups which together represent a majority of the personnel.
As a statutory scheme, employee representation must be organized within one year of the date on which the statutory requirements are met and two employee representative groups, which together make up a majority of the company's workforce, have made a request.
The employees can nominate one to four representatives. The number of employee representatives may total one quarter of the number of the rest of the members in the body in question.
The employee representatives and the members elected by the undertaking to the administrative body shall have the same rights and duties. Employee representatives shall not, however, have the right to participate in the handling of matters that concern the election, dismissal, and contract terms of the management of the undertaking, the personnel's terms of employment, or industrial actions.
Staff representatives are entitled to sufficient time off from work to carry out their duties and for training. Staff representatives shall be entitled to receive training to the extent necessary for the performance of their duties as staff representatives within the institution of the undertaking.
The employer must compensate for the loss of earnings caused by the absence from work. Any other time off work and compensation for loss of earnings must be agreed upon in each case between the employee representative concerned and the employer. If an employee representative attends a meeting of a company body outside working hours, the company shall be obliged to pay them the appropriate expenses and meeting fees for attending the meeting.
The employee representative is obliged to keep confidential the information declared as trade secrets by the company. The employee representative may only discuss the information with the employees they represent and who are concerned. Confidentiality obligation also applies to information concerning the financial situation, health, or other personal circumstances of an individual employee, unless the person in question has granted permission to disclose the information.
The termination protection of the employee representative is the same that is provided for the shop stewards and elected representatives of the employees.
The Co-operation Ombudsman [Co-Operation Ombudsman] supervises the enforcement of the Act.