EU complaint on the Finnish Health and Safety at Work legislation

The EU Commission has stated that the Finnish Health and Sfety at Work legislation does not, in its entirety, fulfil the minimum requirements of the European Union. The Commission issued a statement in July 2001, in which it has stated that Finland has neglected to fulfil the minimum requirements which are stipulated in the framework directive on health and safety at work.

The Commission draws attention in this statement to two regulations in particular. These refer, firstly, to the obligation of the employer to ensure the health and safety of the employee in all instances which have an association with work, and secondly, to the obligation of the employer to maintain a risk evaluation document, which embraces the health and safety risks which are associated with the work. The Commission is of the opinion that the obligations for ensuring health and safety at work should not in any way be at all dependent upon the size or the financial position of the company. It is the view of the Commission that the Finnish legislation leaves the matter of the responsibility of the employer open to interpretation to an unacceptable degree.

Law to be reviewed accordingly

The Commission presented an enquiry on this issue to the Finnish authorities as long ago as 1998. At that time the Finnish Government did not appear to pay attention to those aspects of the matter which had also been raised by SAK, and therefore SAK directly notified the Commission on these points. SAK was of the opinion that the Finnish Government had at that time given a wrongful and a misleading description of the Finnish level of regulations. The officers within the SAK Department for the Working Environment make the point that, during previous years, a prosecution has frequently failed in labour violation cases, as companies have too easily been freed from their obligation to ensure health and safety at work for reasons of equity.

The Commission is now calling upon Finland to implement the necessary changes by the end of September 2001. A draft bill, on health and safety at work, is due to be discussed in the Finnish Parliament in the near future and a new health and safety act is expected to be passed before the end of the current year. SAK now demands that the recommendations by the Commission are included in this new piece of legislation. Finland will otherwise be forced to clarify, before the European Court of Justice, those remaining deficiencies in the legislation on health and safety.

The Finnish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs has commenced tripartite negotiations on this issue.

The federations of the employers have already opposed the changes which the Commission is demanding. The SAK Department for the Working Environment is therefore of the opinion that these tripartite negotiations will turn out to be somewhat difficult.

pirjo.pajunen@sak.fi

For further information, please contact:

The Working Environment Officer, Ms Raili Perimäki, raili.perimaki@sak.fi
Legal Officer, Mr Timo Koskinen, timo.koskinen@sak.fi