Actors and institutions in Finland

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment (Työ- ja elinkeinoministeriö) is responsible for securing the functioning of the labour market by creating a favourable environment for industrial activities and employment. It drafts and monitors labour legislation. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (Sosiaali- ja terveysministeriö) is responsible for the legislation on occupational safety and health and equality issues. The Regional State Administrative Agencies’ (Aluehallintovirasto) divisions of occupational safety and health are responsible for regional supervision of occupational safety.

The National Conciliator’s Office (Valtakunnansovittelija) assists the social partners in disputes concerning collective agreements by facilitating mutual agreements, while the Labour Court (Työtuomioistuin) deals with cases between employer and employee organisations related to alleged violations of collective agreements and can order compensatory fines. Legal cases concerning employment legislature that are not related to the collective bargaining agreements are settled by general courts. The Co-operation Ombudsman (Yhteistoiminta-asiamies) monitors compliance with laws related to personnel representation, such as the Act on Co-operation within Undertakings.

There are no statutory regulations regarding representativeness, except for the central principles of collective bargaining in the Collective Agreements Act. The act sets out the principles as follows:

A collective agreement within the meaning of this Act is any agreement concluded by one or more employers or registered associations of employers and one or more registered associations of employees, concerning the conditions to be complied with in contracts of employment or in employment generally.

For the purposes of this Act, ‘association of employers’ means any association whose specific objects include that of safeguarding the employers’ interest in the matter of employment; and ‘association of employees’ means any association whose specific objects include that of safeguarding the employees’ interests in the matter of employment.

About trade union representation

According to the Employment Contracts Act, all workers, regardless of the sector they are employed in, have the right to join trade unions. Membership of trade unions in Finland is high, and trade union density has remained around 70% since 2011. Explanatory factors for the popularity of trade unions include trade unions’ involvement in pensions and unemployment schemes, which make them a provider of individual security, even though other institutions providing similar services exist and are becoming increasingly popular. The Finnish history of trade union prominence in working life and politics may also be a reason for the normalisation of membership of trade unions.

Trade union membership and density, 2011–2022

Notes: * Proportion of employees who are members of a trade union. ** Trade union membership of employees derived for the total union membership and adjusted, if necessary, for trade union members outside the active, dependent and employed labour force (i.e. retired workers, self-employed workers, students and unemployed people). n.a., not available.

Main trade union confederations and federations

The three peak-level trade union confederations are the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) (Suomen Ammattiliittojen Keskusjärjestö), the Finnish Confederation of Professionals (STTK) and the Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff in Finland (Akava). SAK represents mostly blue-collar occupations, while STTK represents officials and clerks (mostly white-collar workers) and Akava is the trade union confederation for those with a university, professional or other high-level education.

Main trade union confederations and federations

In 2014, the two largest peak-level trade unions, SAK and STTK, started a process towards merging. The merger was planned for 2016. Its aim was to increase the centralisation and potential bargaining power of the employee organisations. However, the project was abandoned in June 2016 after several STTK member unions and some SAK member unions decided to withdraw from it.

STTK has in recent years lost member unions to Akava. In 2016, the Finnish Police Union SPJL (Suomen Poliisijärjestöjen liitto), with around 11,000 members, switched from STTK to Akava and, in 2017, another three public sector unions with a total member count of 5,700 did the same. Between 2018 and 2022, several mergers occurred between trade unions within STTK; all of them included one of its largest members, Trade Union Pro (Ammattiliitto PRO). Trade union mergers also happened under the umbrella of SAK, for example when three industrial unions merged in 2018, forming one of the largest trade unions in the country (RAU, 2018; ETUI, 2020; PRO, 2020; Nousu, undated). During the 2022 collective bargaining round, unions affiliated to SAK intensified their cooperation due to a logjam in private sector collective bargaining (Trade Union News from Finland, 2022).

About employer representation

All employers have the right to freedom of association, and membership of employer organisations is voluntary in the private sector. The employer organisation density was stable during the 2010s, and was around 65% in 2017. There has been a marked trend of organisations merging, and this is expected to continue. The relatively high employer organisation density is most likely related to the power that labour organisations have in the collective agreements.

Employer organisation membership and density, 2012–2022

Note: * Percentage of employees working in an establishment that is a member of any employer organisation that is involved in collective bargaining. n.a., not available.

Main employer organisations

The EK is the leading business organisation and represents the entire private sector and companies of all sizes. In recent years, the EK has lost two notable member organisations: the Finnish Forest Industries Federation (Metsäteollisuus) left in 2016, claiming to need better-targeted interest promotion, and the Employers’ Federation of Road Transport ALT (Autoliikenteen työnantajaliitto) left in 2017 because the EK no longer participated in collective bargaining. The ALT has approximately 660 member companies with 26,000 employees and Metsäteollisuus has 62 member companies with 42,000 employees.

Local Government and County Employers KT (Kuntatyönantajat) is an interest organisation for local government employers representing all Finnish local, regional and joint authorities. It negotiates and concludes collective agreements for municipalities, welfare regions and federations of municipalities and welfare regions that employ about 434,000 people (2021) in total (KT, undated).

The Office for the Government as Employer VTML (Valtion työmarkkinalaitos) negotiates and concludes collective agreements for the approximately 80,000 (2022) employees working for the state (Explore Administration, undated).

The Church Employers (KiT) represents the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (Evankelis-luterilainen kirkko) as an employer and negotiates a collective agreement for about 20,000 employees working for the parishes (JUKO, 2023).

The Federation of Finnish Enterprises SY (Suomen Yrittäjät) has the largest membership of all business-related federations in Finland. Its membership consists of more than 115,000 enterprises of all sizes (although half of the members are solo entrepreneurs), from all over the country, and encompasses the entire business spectrum. The SY was founded in 1996. It is not a negotiating party in collective bargaining.

Main employer organisations and confederations

Note: * Following the EK’s change of rules, centralised agreements should no longer occur and, in 2017–2018, no centralised agreement was signed. However, traditionally, the central organisations have been deeply involved in collective bargaining and, in 2017–2018 and 2019–2020, the central organisations did support and coordinate their member unions in the sectoral negotiations.

Owing to a strong tradition of tripartite cooperation, there are various bipartite and especially tripartite working groups in Finland. While some are of a more permanent nature, others are established ad hoc, by the government or based on national-level agreements, to investigate a certain issue. The most important ones are the national-level tripartite bodies listed in the table ‘Main tripartite and bipartite bodies’, although smaller discussion groups and regional tripartite forums also exist. The national working groups are highly influential, as they participate in policymaking in various areas in cooperation with the government or other public actors. These areas include issues connected to collective bargaining, such as wage and cost developments, in which the government wants contracts that suit the overall situation of the economy. Other important issues include competitiveness and employment, as well as unemployment and pension schemes. For permanent bodies, there are often fixed consultation mechanisms, while ad hoc groups’ processes vary on a case-by-case basis.

In addition to political negotiations, the tripartite and bipartite bodies are discussion forums for developing Finnish working life and enhancing international competitiveness.

Main tripartite and bipartite bodies

Finland has a high rate of workplace-based employee representation, with the incidence of employee representation as a whole at 56% of establishments (European Company Survey, 2019). Employee representation is essentially characterised by single-channel representation by shop stewards (luottamusmies), who are elected representatives, affiliated to trade unions and whose position is regulated by sectoral collective agreement. Shop stewards are generally affiliated to SAK or STTK. Akava often has a lower level of employee representation at workplace level, such as contact persons (yhdyshenkilö or yhteyshenkilö). Shop stewards are the main partners for information and consultation procedures, as well as for collective bargaining at establishment level. Collective agreements provide for shop stewards to be present in workplaces in all sectors of the economy. The election of shop stewards and their terms of office are regulated by the unions' internal statutes.

In workplaces where there is no trade union shop steward, or in cases where a specific personnel group has no trade union shop steward, a shop steward without a trade union affiliation (luottamusvaltuutettu) may be elected instead. The position of such shop stewards is regulated by law, and their tasks are similar to trade union-affiliated shop stewards.

If neither type of shop steward has been elected, employees may elect a cooperation representative (yhteistoimintaedustaja) to represent them in negotiations and activities with the employer regarding work, working conditions and the position of the employees in the workplace. In employer–employee cooperation negotiations and activities that involve more than one personnel group, the employer and the employees may agree to establish a works council (yhteistoimintaneuvottelukunta) with representatives of all parties to facilitate negotiations. The positions of cooperation representatives and works councils are laid down in legislation. The Act on Co-operation within Undertakings specifies subjects that employee representatives need to be informed of and consulted on, including issues such as the economic situation of the company and the outlook for production and employment, statistics on pay for different categories of employees, and consultation on changes in the organisation of work and cases of restructuring.

An employee occupational safety and health representative (työsuojeluvaltuutettu) monitors matters of occupational safety and health in workplaces with 10 or more employees. In workplaces with 20 or more employees, there must also be an occupational safety and health committee (työsuojelutoimikunta) in which both employer and employee representatives, including the elected occupational safety and health representative, are involved.

In private companies with 150 employees or more, employees have the right to be represented in the company’s relevant governing bodies (henkilöstön edustaja).

Trade union delegations (ammattiosasto) are municipality- or workplace-level branches of trade unions affiliated to SAK and STTK. They provide information, support, training and recreational activities for their members. Akava’s counterpart of the trade union delegation, in large workplaces, is the company union (yritysyhdistys).

Regulation, composition and competences of the representative bodies