Legal and contractual limitations to working time in the European Union

Finland WP/97/33/EN EUROPEAN FOUNDATION for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions I. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 1 II. LEGISLATION ON WORKING HOURS................................................................................. 2 III. LEGISLATION ON ANNUAL LEAVE.................................................................................. 17 IV. CONTRACTUAL REGULATION OF WORKING HOURS................................................ 18 V. PRACTICE AND FUTURE PROSPECTS............................................................................... 21 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................................... 26 I. Introduction Working hours have always been a part of labour protection in Finland. Provisions to protect employees against various dangers have never been totally lacking. Regulations on working hours are deeply rooted in the history of the economic development and political alliances of the country. Inherited from the Swedish era (1154-1808) and supplemented by Russian bureaucratism (Finland was an autonomous Grand Duchy of Russia from 1809 to 1917) mercantilism continued in Finland much longer than in the central regions of Europe. In urban trades, working hours and other employment conditions were regulated in guild ordinances, factory ordinances, mines ordinances and several other statutes issued for different groups of trades. It was only in the Trades Act of 1868 that the guild system was abolished. This Act, and even more so its successor of 1879, was based on liberal principles. Among other rules, these Acts contained provisions concerning employment contracts and working hours in all urban trades. These provisions were based on the principle of the freedom of the contract, but not in an extremist way. The laws included both provisions to protect employees against various dangers and provisions on working hours, for example provisions restricting the employment of children under 12, the hours of work of children under 15, and the night work of young persons under 18. The real beginning of comprehensive employee protection, including working hours regulation, was the Act for the Protection of Factory Workers of 1889. This Act laid down the fundamental duties of a factory owner to take care of the health and safety conditions of the workplace. Restrictions on the employment, hours of work and night work of children and young persons were tightened, and the first industrial inspectors were appointed. Regulations on working hours were extended to adult male and female employees in 1908 regarding work done in bakeries, and finally, in 1917, a statutory working day of 8 hours was introduced as a fairly g