European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
Eurofound's ERM database on restructuring-related legal regulations provides information on regulations in the Member States of the European Union and Norway which are explicitly or implicitly linked to anticipating and managing change.
- The Employment Contracts Act (55/2001) - Act on the Protection of Privacy in Working Life (759/2004): articles 4, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. - Occupational Safety and Health Act (738/2002): articles 27, 63. - Co-operation Act (1333/2021): section 12.
LAST UPDATE 2023 - THIS CONTENT WILL NOT BE UPDATED
The Finnish Act on the Protection of Privacy in Working Life (759/2004) is the most important Finnish legislation related to the processing of employees’ personal data. According to this act, employers may operate camera surveillance at workplaces only for the purpose of ensuring the personal security of employees and other persons on the premises, protecting property or supervising the proper operation of production processes, and for preventing or investigating situations that endanger safety, property or the production process. The data collected through surveillance must be necessary for the employment relationship, protection of property, and ensuring the safety of employees and other persons on the premises.
Regarding electronic surveillance, employers are allowed to monitor their employees' use of e-mail and the Internet, but only under certain prerequisites. The article does not provide specific details on these prerequisites, but it does mention that the monitoring must be necessary for the employment relationship and that the employer must inform the employees of the monitoring.
In short, the so called 'right to manage' gives the employer the right to decide who does what, where, when and how, during work hours. This includes surveillance of employees' work. The right is however limited by employment agreements, collective agreements and other labour legislation. The protection of an employee's personal data, as well as video surveillance, is regulated in the Act on the Protection of Privacy in Working Life (759/2004). According to the Occupational Safety and Health Act (738/2002), employers must constantly monitor the working environment, the state of the work community and the safety of working practices.
The collection of personal data during recruitment and employment is also subject to regulation under the Co-operation Act (1333/2021), according to which it needs to be included in workplace dialogue. This includes the purpose and methods of surveillance by technical means of employees, the use data networks and the processing of employees' e-mail and other electronic communications.
Compliance with the law on Occupational Safety and Health Act is monitored by labor protection authorities, which is the relevant region's Regional State Administrative Agency.
Compliance with the Act on the Protection of Privacy in Working Life is supervised by the occupational safety and health authorities in accordance with their competence, together with the Data Protection Ombudsman.
Occupational health and safety authorities monitor compliance with The Employment Contracts Act. In their supervisory role and, in particular, when monitoring the observance of general binding collective agreements, the labor protection authorities must work in close cooperation with the employers' and employees' associations whose provisions of the general binding collective agreements entered into by the employers must be complied with according to Chapter 2, Section 7.
Eurofound (2023), Finland: Employee monitoring and surveillance, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/employee-monitoring-and-surveillance/finland
This Eurofound research paper explores key trends in restructuring in recent years, highlighting the companies that announced the largest job losses and job gains in the EU. It builds on an analysis of company announcements recorded in Eurofound’s European Restructuring Monitor (ERM), alongside a new classification of restructuring events involving changes in company location.
:quality(80))
Employers increasingly use tools such as email, SMS and messaging apps like WhatsApp or Signal to communicate with employees. While these technologies offer both efficiency and convenience, their use in communicating sensitive information, particularly for notifying employees of dismissal, raises legal concerns. This article explores the legal framework on dismissals across the EU, with a special focus on the use of digital means for communicating employment dismissals. Drawing on examples from various Member States, it examines the legal validity of digital dismissals.
:quality(80))
In 2023, thousands of workers in big tech lost their jobs. Meta, Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft and Salesforce had been considered to offer good and secure jobs up to this point. Giants of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector, these companies are among the highest paying, with Eurostat data from 2022 indicating that workers in ICT had the second-highest median gross hourly earnings (surpassed only by earnings in the financial sector).[1] These layoffs were a shock, especially as the biggest companies had hired extensively during the COVID-19 pandemic. What happened in the two years after this redundancy wave – was that the end of the cuts or did the companies start expanding again?
:quality(80))
In 2024, the automotive sector in the EU came to the fore in public and policy discussions. The focus was on the slowdown in electric vehicle (EV) sales, rising global competition, belated investments in new technologies, and the potential closure of production lines in Europe. A number of European car manufacturers and suppliers announced their intention to make large-scale redundancies and change long-standing collective agreements on job security and wages, while workers raised concerns amid demonstrations and industrial action.
:quality(80))