The occupational safety and health authority received an increasing number of contacts related to discrimination at work

Last year, the occupational safety and health authority received approximately 700 contacts related to discrimination at work. The number increased by approximately 10% from the previous year. Most of the contacts were made by employees or jobseekers seeking advice or wondering whether their experience could be discrimination.

Some of the contacts progressed to written enforcement requests, on the basis of which the occupational safety and health authority could initiate an occupational safety and health inspection. A total of 282 enforcement requests related to discrimination were processed and 121 inspections were carried out on the basis of them. 

In approximately one third of the inspections, it was found that the employer had violated the prohibition of discrimination. In these cases, the occupational safety and health inspector obliged the employer to correct its activities and comply with the Non-Discrimination Act.

As in previous years, the most common cases of discrimination were ones related to the termination of employment. Nearly half of the cases concerned discrimination during employment, and about one in ten were related to recruitment. Discrimination was found in situations where an employment relationship was terminated on the basis of the employee’s state of health, an employee with an immigrant background was not paid wages in accordance with the collective agreement, or no reasonable adjustments were made to enable working for a disabled employee, for example.

The occupational safety and health authority also enforces the rules against discrimination through spot checks. We enforced the prohibition of occupational discrimination related to the use of foreign labour during approximately 650 inspections. Discrimination based on nationality, origin or language was observed in the payment of wages or other minimum terms of employment in ten per cent of the inspections.  

“People with a particular risk of discrimination in working life are those with an immigrant background, ethnic minorities, the chronically ill, the elderly and the disabled. There is still a need for increasing both awareness and enforcement,” says Head of Group Päivi Laakso from the Occupational Safety and Health Department at the Finnish Supervisory Agency.

More detailed information can be found in the report Enforcement of non-discrimination and prohibition of discrimination in working life in 2025. The report is in Finnish and will be published in Swedish and English later.

Advice in cases of discrimination

The occupational safety and health authority’s telephone service is available Mon–Fri 9 a.m.–11 a.m. and 12 noon–2 p.m. at +358 295 256 808. You can discuss suspected discrimination anonymously. Enforcement in individual cases requires the employee’s consent.

Read more in the report (in Finnish): Yhdenvertaisuuden ja syrjinnän kiellon valvonta työelämässä 2025 (pdf)

Inquiries:
Head of Group Päivi Laakso tel. +358 295 256 143, [email protected]
Finnish Supervisory Agency, Occupational Safety and Health Department