Minister of Finance Riikka Purra and Prime Minister Petteri Orpo at the government’s budget session press conference in Helsinki on Tuesday evening, September 2, 2025. Photo: Markku Ulander / Lehtikuva
- Next Article Lindtman to Yle: Finland must recognise Palestine or face motion in parliament
Finland’s government has agreed to remove underperformance as a legal ground for dismissal from its proposed employment reform, resolving a months-long coalition dispute. The matter was first reported by Yle.
Government . Its director Atte Rytkönen-Sandberg said in an interview that the failure to change the warning procedure or explicitly include underperformance weakened the impact of the bill.
He argued that current regulations require employers to issue multiple warnings for separate infractions, even when misconduct is repeated in a general sense.
“A change allowing dismissal after different types of misconduct following a warning would have brought clarity. It’s unreasonable that the second violation must be identical to the first,” he said.
Rytkönen-Sandberg also claimed that codifying underperformance in the law would have provided clearer guidance to employers and reduced legal uncertainty.
Despite the changes, he said the overall proposal still lowers the dismissal threshold. Removing the need for a “serious” reason and weakening the obligation to offer alternative work will have an effect, he said.
The updated proposal also omits a previously suggested clause that would have introduced a proportionality test requiring employers to justify termination based on what could be reasonably expected of them. This was supported by trade unions, who saw it as a way to safeguard workers from arbitrary dismissal.
Instead, the bill now includes a more general prohibition on discrimination, which is already present in existing law.
According to Helsingin Sanomat, the trade union confederation SAK welcomed the removal of the underperformance clause and the retention of the current warning system, but warned that the overall reform still weakens employee protections.
“This proposal may be improved compared to earlier drafts, but from a worker’s perspective the direction remains negative,” said Katariina Sahlberg, a legal expert at SAK, told Helsingin Sanomat.
She noted that employers’ duty to consider other roles before termination has also been scaled back. In future, the requirement would apply only in cases where an employee’s ability to work has changed due to illness or similar reasons.
The final version of the bill is expected to be presented to Parliament later this year. If approved, the new rules could come into force in 2026.
The legislative process has highlighted the fragile consensus within the coalition and the government’s struggle to balance business demands with employment protections.
The dispute was unusual in that the original draft was sent out for public consultation before the coalition partners had reached agreement. Typically, such proposals are finalised internally before public review.
The government has not announced whether it will replace the removed underperformance clause with alternative language or leave the matter to be regulated through existing legal interpretations. Under current practice, courts already consider underperformance as a valid dismissal reason under certain conditions.
The full impact of the proposed changes will depend on future court decisions interpreting the revised legal framework.
HT
- Next Article Lindtman to Yle: Finland must recognise Palestine or face motion in parliament
Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
