Improvements to Industrial Peace in the Labour Market

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland has introduced a bill on 29 February 2024 to improve industrial peace in the labour market. The bill is one of the Government’s major labour market reforms that aim to improve Finland’s position as a reliable and secure country for investments. The new legislation is expected become in force as of 1 July 2024.

The primary focus of the bill is to strengthen the sanctions system for unlawful industrial action, to limit disproportionate solidarity action, especially when the industrial peace obligation is in force, and to limit the duration of political industrial action to 24 hours.

The amendments do not limit industrial actions, in which the parties to the action are seeking to improve the working conditions in their own sector. Instead, the amendments are aimed at disproportionate solidarity actions, which seek to support the industrial action of another employee group, and political actions, which aim to influence political decision-making, such as government.

The bill proposes to strengthen the sanctions system for unlawful industrial action. The bill increases the amount of the fine for industrial disputes up to EUR 150,000. The bill would provide for a compensatory sanction for the implementation of disproportionate compassionate industrial action or political industrial action exceeding the maximum duration outside the obligation of industrial peace. Right to claim compensation would belong to the target of the industrial action e.g. an employer. Additionally, the compensatory fine of EUR 200 could be imposed on individual employees if they continue industrial action enforced by a workers' organisation and declared unlawful by a court after being informed of the ruling.

Most solidarity actions that have occurred in recent times would be permitted in future too. There would be no right to solidarity action, or the action would have to be organised in a more moderate manner, if it caused significant harm to a third-party employer that is the target of the solidarity action.

According to the bill, solidarity action will become subject to the duty to notify in accordance with the proportionality assessment. If the industrial peace obligation is in force, a solidarity action could not be carried out if the way it is implemented or its harmful consequences for those not involved as a party in the main dispute would be disproportionate to the objective pursued. In the absence of the obligation to maintain industrial peace, the above-mentioned restriction would only apply to situations where the aim of the industrial action was not to conclude a collective agreement.

According to the bill, the maximum duration of political industrial actions in the form of political work stoppages would be 24 hours, and the maximum duration of other political industrial action (such as an overtime ban) would be two weeks. Questions may arise as to when the object of industrial action is the same and when it is new, as the bill seeks to determine how soon the industrial action may be repeated. The bill also states that political industrial action aiming to influence the same issue should not be repeated. In other words, the intention of the bill is to prevent the circumvention of the 24-hour rule on political industrial actions.

In future, the industrial peace obligation would also include the requirement to refrain from disproportionate solidarity action or long-term political industrial action.

The anticipated Finnish Act on the Mediation of Labour Disputes would require a notification obligation for compassionate or political industrial action in the form of a work stoppage, with a stipulation that the notification must be made at least seven days before the action commences. There would be no obligation to report political industrial action when industrial peace is not in force.

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