The legislative proposal currently under consideration by the Parliament that also includes a change in the grounds for emergency work has been prepared far from thoroughly.
First of all, Finland is bound by international law, according to which the labour legislation and occupational safety and health regulations here must be prepared in a tripartite negotiations with organisations representing employers and employees. The occupational safety and health regulations were prepared by a tripartite working group, in which the public officials did not propose any changes to the current emergency work or working time legislation in general.
Legislative drafting includes transparency and citizen participation, which are also protected by the Constitution of Finland. In this case, opinions from citizens and stakeholders were requested concerning a draft law that did not include any changes to emergency work.
The Parliament has received a statement of the Finnish Council of Regulatory Impact Analysis that does not mention emergency work.
The Finnish Council of Regulatory Impact Analysis, which is independent of the Government, assesses the quality of legislative proposals. The Ministry sent the Council of Regulatory Impact Analysis a draft law that did not include any changes to emergency work. The Council of Regulatory Impact Analysis was not able to comment on the legislative proposal with regard to the changes to emergency work. The Parliament, meaning the Members of Parliament, have received a statement of the Council of Regulatory Impact Analysis that does not take the changes to emergency work into account.
Will “the political section” override legislative drafting by public officials?
After tripartite legislative drafting had ended, opinions had been requested from citizens and stakeholders and the legislative proposal had been sent to the Finnish Council of Regulatory Impact Analysis, an important issue, meaning a change in the grounds for emergency work during industrial action, was added to the legislative proposal in the ministry.
In an interview (in Finnish) in the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, a public official from the ministry said that the decision was made by the “political section”.
The legislative proposal under consideration by the Parliament does not in any way address the issues that it is required to address by law when a proposal for a change in emergency work is made: for instance, the way emergency work is applied in other countries during industrial action has not been discussed, and the legislative proposal has not taken account of the international treaties binding Finland that are essential with regard to emergency work.
Such actions by the Government and the ministries have no place in democracy.
