Act on Occupational Safety and Health Enforcement and Cooperation on  Occupational Safety and Health at Workplaces (44/2006) lays down provisions on cooperation in occupational safety and health matters. Certain legal matters can be agreed either between national employer organisations and employee organisations or at the workplace.

The organisation of occupational safety and health cooperation in a manner suitable for the conditions at the workplace can also be agreed on locally at the workplace. The parties to the local agreement are the employer and the occupational safety and health representative or another representative authorised by the personnel. If no personnel representative has been selected at the workplace, the agreement can be concluded by the personnel or a personnel group.

The agreement must ensure equal opportunities for employees to participate in cooperation concerning occupational safety and health matters. The agreement is binding on those employees who are represented by the employee representative who concluded the agreement.

The employer must inform their employees of the agreement applied at the workplace in writing. The agreement on the organisation of occupational safety and health cooperation is valid until further notice and may be terminated to end two months after the termination.

The following rights laid down in the Act on Occupational Safety and Health Enforcement and Cooperation on Occupational Safety and Health at Workplaces cannot be restricted by a workplace-specific agreement on occupational safety and health cooperation:

• Occupational safety and health representative and vice representatives (section 29)
• Occupational safety and health representative’s right to gain information (section 32)
• Occupational safety and health representative’s and vice representative’s right to receive training (section 33)
• Time allocation of occupational safety and health representatives (section 34)
• Compensation for the loss of income to the occupational safety and health representative (section 35)
• Occupational safety and health representative’s right to interrupt dangerous work (section 36)
• Protection against termination in the case of occupational safety and health representatives (section 37)
• Occupational safety and health committee members’ time allocation and compensation (section 40)
• Working premises of the occupational safety and health representative and occupational safety and health committee (section 41).

• Starting point: The representation of personnel when concluding a local agreement is determined by what is stated in the collective agreement.
• Second: If there is no representative equal to that referred to in the collective agreement (e.g. a shop steward), the alternative method agreed in the collective agreement shall be followed, if this has been agreed upon.
• Last option: The agreement can be concluded with the elected representative.
  • An exception to this is when agreeing on the organisation of regular working hours (see separate information box)

A local agreement based on a generally applicable collective agreement may be concluded within the limits permitted by the collective agreement in compliance with the provisions of the collective agreement concerning the parties and procedures. However, it is not necessary to comply with the negotiating orders of the collective agreement when concluding the agreement. Unless otherwise agreed, the agreement is binding on all employees covered by the collective agreement.

If the collective agreement requires that a shop steward to be a party to a local agreement, the agreement is concluded with the shop steward. In this case, the shop steward represents all employees to whom the collective agreement in question applies. However, employees who are not members of an employee association committed to a collective agreement have the right to elect with a majority decision, a representative from among themselves to work alongside the shop steward, to represent them in matters concerning a local agreement. In this case, the local agreement must be concluded with both the shop steward and the elected representative.

If, according to the collective agreement, a shop steward is required to be a party to a local agreement, but one has not been selected, and the collective agreement does not contain provisions securing equal conditions on how to proceed in the absence of a shop steward, a local agreement can be concluded with the elected representative notwithstanding the collective agreement.

Regardless of its duration, an agreement can be terminated by both sides. The period of notice is three months, unless otherwise stated in the collective agreement or a shorter period of notice has been agreed on in the local agreement.

An exception to this is an agreement on regular working hours that can be terminated to end at the conclusion of the working hours adjustment period.

The employer must submit an agreement to the occupational safety and health authority if

• the employer is not a member of an employers’ association
• the agreement is based on a collective agreement that the employer complies with on the basis of its general applicability.

The agreement must be submitted to the occupational safety and health authority within one month of the conclusion of the agreement. This obligation does not apply to an agreement concluded with an individual employee.

The following information must be submitted to the occupational safety and health authority with the agreement:

• Employer’s details
• Details for the party submitting the agreement
• Person providing additional information (if different from the party submitting agreement)
• Local agreement details
  • Date on which the agreement was concluded
  • Agreement start and end date
  • What collective agreement is the agreement based on? If necessary, also the section of the collective agreement on which the agreement is based.
  • Personnel representative or party with whom the agreement has been concluded (e.g. shop steward, elected representative, other party specified in the collective agreement)
  • Information on whether the agreement contains confidential information.

Submit the agreement and the related information to the regional occupational safety and health authority, i.e. the division of occupational safety and health at the regional state administrative agency in whose area the workplace is located (Contact information).

We recommend using the secure email connection of the regional state administrative agency. Use the secure email connection at least if the material contains confidential or otherwise sensitive matters. The maximum size of the email attachments is 50 MB. If the attachments are too large, reduce the file size or send them in multiple emails. Remember that the sender is responsible for delivering the message to the authority.
Send email with the secure email connection of the regional state administrative agency.

If an employer does not submit a local agreement to the occupational safety and health authority, the occupational safety and health authority may impose a negligence fee on the employer. 

The minimum negligence fee is EUR 1,000 and the maximum is EUR 10,000. When assessing the amount of the negligence fee, the size of the employer, and the intentional nature and frequency of the negligence are taken into account. If a negligence fee were to be imposed on two or more acts of negligence at the same time, a joint amount is imposed on these negligence acts, which may not exceed EUR 15,000.

A negligence fee is not imposed if the imposition of the fee is unreasonable considering the circumstances or the negligence is due to a valid reason. If more than five years have passed since the negligence, no negligence fee is imposed.