The temporary changes in labour legislation will be extended to be in force until the end of year 2020

D&I Alert

Posted on

3 Jun

2020

Dittmar & Indrenius > Insight > The temporary changes in labour legislation will be extended to be in force until the end of year 2020

The temporary changes in labour legislation that came into force due to COVID-19 on 1 April 2020 will be extended to be in force until 31 December 2020.

On 14 May 2020, the labour market parties proposed that the temporary changes currently in force until 30 June 2020 in labour legislation would remain in force until the end of year 2020. The Finnish government has assessed the situation on 2 June 2020 and showed green light that the following temporary changes will stay in force until 31 December 2020:

  • Shortening the minimum co-operation consultation period regarding layoffs to five days (currently 14 days or 6 weeks);
  • Shortening the lay-off notice period to five days (currently 14 days);
    • A temporary lay-off is possible due to reduction of work or due to financial reasons
  • Allowing employers to lay off fixed-term employees;
  • Allowing termination of employment for financial and production-related reasons during a probationary period (currently permitted only on individual grounds); and
  • Extending the re-employment obligation period to nine months (current four or six months) following the expiry of the employment relationship due to redundancy.

However, as we have emphasized before, please note that the temporary legislative changes do not affect the applicability of the terms of the collective agreements. Hence, if you are planning on measures that relate to the above, the provisions of the applicable collective labour agreement that deviate from the statutory rules should be reviewed. Also most of the CLA’s contain temporary changes.

Further, to ease the employees’ position, the Finnish government has also approved that during the validity of the temporary labour law changes, the maximum of the daily allowance period does not run.

Please see our Alert from 31 March 2020 for more delated information on the contents of the temporary labour legislation.

Do not hesitate to contact us, if you have any questions or concerns concerning employment matters within your company in this constantly evolving and challenging time.

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