The quiet work that allays disputes in working life

For most Finns the Board for the Ratification of Validity of Collective Agreements is probably not the most strikingly familiar public organ, and yet it plays a singular role in making working life run smoothly. "It's a good example of basic public sector work serving people without making a big noise about it," observes Eija Koivuranta, who until the turn of the year headed of the MSAH Legislation Unit of the Department of Occupational Safety and Health, and is now Managing Director of the Family Federation of Finland.

The Board is an independent authority whose secretariat is based with the ministry's Department of Occupational Safety and Health. It was created at the turn of the millennium as part of the reform of the Employment Contracts Act and its members comprise top specialists in the theory and practice of employment law.

"The Board is seen as one of the most successful aspects of the reform of the Employment Contracts Act", says Koivuranta. "Though it works with quite slim resources, it has been able to improve employees' legal protection, increase the stability of working life and clarify who the system operates. This benefits individual workers and employers as well as society as a whole."

General binding contracts cover some 1.2 million private sector employees, of whom 850 000 work for employers bound by collective agreements. The remainder enjoy benefits derived from the universally binding nature of the agreements.

Fewer court casesWhen a collective agreement is approved as universally binding, even non-organised employers have to comply with its provisions. Employees must thereby at least be guaranteed the minimum benefits, which cannot be bypassed, even by individual work contracts.

Before the Board was created, a directory kept at the MSAH was used for the interpretation of the universally binding nature of contracts, though such interpretations were in fact not binding.

"When there were disputes local lower courts always first had to decide whether the sector in question came under a universally binding agreement. Now the Board clarifies and confirms this, and so can avoid all those court sessions," explains Koivuranta.

That an agreement is universally binding can only be established by a national agreement that is representative in its own sector. To ensure that the review process is balanced, the Board requests information from the contracting organisations on how many of the sector's workers and employers have joined the collective agreement. The sector is in turn defined in the agreement. This is not, Koivuranta points out, always a straightforward matter.

"There can only be one universally binding agreement for each sector. But the areas of application may partially overlap. One example has concerned the food industry and the electricity sector where has not been possible to affirm a universally binding nature for an agreement concerning electricians working in the food industry."

Information readily availableIf any employee or employer wants to find out about the status of their particular sector, they can check collective agreements using the online Finlex service, the public database of all Finnish legislation. Koivuranta says that the database's registry of collective agreements is one of its most popular sections.

"None of the workplaces need wonder whether their particular collective agreement is universally binding, as one can quickly and easily find out."

Creating and maintaining this online service of labour law agreements have been a major exercise that has paid off.

"One's rights are important to everyone. In general, one can find out about them from laws but labour law agreements are the normal source. This is why we feel it is important that such information is easily available and that they are continually updated. This way it has been possible in working life to avoid many of the obstacles and disputes experienced earlier."


Text: Paula Mannonen, Mark Waller