Amendments to the Act on Co-operation within Undertakings raise the application threshold of the Act and shorten the duration of change negotiations

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The amendments to the Act on Co-operation within Undertakings will enter into force on 1 July 2025.

Until now, the Act on Co-operation within Undertakings has been applied to employers that regularly employ at least 20 employees. Going forward, the Act will only apply to employers that regularly employ a minimum of 50 employees. Employers that regularly employ between 20 and 49 employees must comply with certain legal obligations.

  • The practice of continuous dialogue will be maintained, but the procedures pertaining to the dialogue will be lightened significantly.
  • Employers will be required to hold change negotiations only in situations where the employer is considering measures to reduce the number of at least 20 employees over a 90-day period. Measures to reduce refer to dismissals, layoffs, part-time work or unilateral amendments to a material condition of the employment contract on financial or production-related grounds. No change negotiations will be required of employers who are considering layoffs that are based on a temporary reduction of work or the employer’s ability to offer work and last a maximum of 90 days.
  • The provisions on the transfer, merger and division of business will continue as before.

Minimum duration of change negotiations will shorten

At present, change negotiations concerning the reduction of workforce must last at least six weeks or 14 days. After the amendments have entered into force, the minimum duration of the change negotiations will be either three weeks or seven days, depending on the matters to be negotiated and the number of employees at the company or organisation.

In future, time will have to be reserved for examining the availability of employment services if the employer submits a proposal for negotiations on its plan to terminate at least ten employees on production-related and financial grounds. The employment contract of a terminated employee may not end before 30 days have elapsed from the date a proposal for negotiations was submitted to the employment authority.

You can read more about change negotiations, layoffs, dismissals and their alternatives on Job Market Finland.

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Changes to the employment contract

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