Translation by Apropos Lingua.
The Academic Engineers and Architects in Finland TEK believes that the Government proposal on amending the Co-operation Act is anti-cooperation and unnecessary.
TEK considers the legislative amendments proposed by the Government to be contrary to the intention of cooperation, as the amendments do not promote the practice of continuous dialogue or a conversational workplace culture.
In terms of the proposed amendments, TEK is opposed, for example, to the raising of the threshold for applying the Co-operation Act, limiting the obligations to engage in dialogue and conduct change negotiations in companies with 20–49 employees, and reducing the negotiation times by half.
“The Government swears by local bargaining and negotiating, but still proposes that the obligation to conduct negotiations be eliminated and weakened. Genuine collective bargaining requires dialogue and cooperation,” says TEK’s Labour Market Director Teemu Hankamäki.
“It seems quite strange and inconsistent that while possibilities for local bargaining are being expanded especially to small, unorganised companies, these companies are also relieved from the obligation to engage in cooperation with their employees.”
In its comment, TEK points out that, as a result of the amendments, the essential labour costs incurred by employers will decrease, particularly in dismissal cases.
“The impact assessment indicates that reducing negotiation times in companies with more than 50 employees would mean that employees lose an average of 2,154 euros in earned income. Meanwhile, in smaller companies with fewer than 50 employees where the obligation to conduct negotiations would only apply in rare circumstances, the average loss of pay per employee is no less than 4,309 euros”, says TEK in its comment.