Tehy is asking the police to investigate whether the officials of the ministry have failed to carry out their official duties in the preparation of the act on essential work in the past autumn and/or this spring. Tehy is also asking the police to determine which ministry officials are responsible for the errors and negligent acts in the preparation of the act.
“The errors are serious and affect not only all Tehy members, but every citizen of this country. The officials of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment greatly misled the Parliament, which is why the Parliament is not even aware of what type of act it is enforcing. This type of action is not part of the Finnish constitutional state,” says Tehy President Millariikka Rytkönen.
Essential work legislation behind the matter
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment officials committed the suspected offences in public office and negligent acts in the preparation of the essential work legislation regarding the right to exercise industrial action. The ministry kept the tripartite working group invited to the preparation process wholly unaware of the fact that, after the official working group process, it was going to include an integral change to the emergency work provisions to be passed by the Parliament.
The provisions on emergency work are part of the Working Time Act, which is a completely different act than the act that was to be amended by the tripartite working group. Emergency work is related to the occupational safety and protection of the employees, as by carrying out emergency work, the employer is temporarily waived of their obligation to comply with the provisions on night work, consent on additional work and overtime, daily breaks or the daily or weekly rest period laid down in the Working Time Act.
The ministry officials have not presented the possibility of extending the use of emergency work in the tripartite working group. Furthermore, they have not asked the employee associations for statements regarding the content of the final amendment, but requested statements on a different topic.
In the hearing of citizens and stakeholders that is part of the preparation of the act, statements were requested regarding a version of the act according to which the provisions on emergency work or the employees’ occupational protection would be unchanged. No one had the opportunity to issue a written statement on amending the emergency work, i.e., working time provisions.
The ministry officials also misled the Council of Regulatory Impact Analysis, which is part of the government. The Council of Regulatory Impact Analysis had requested a version of the draft law from
the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, but the ministry submitted a different version to the Council than it submitted to the Parliament.
The Parliament is unaware of the legislative proposal it is processing due to the ministry’s negligence
Due to the itemised negligent acts specified in the report of an offence filed by Tehy, the plenary session of the government approved and submitted a legislative proposal in which the emergency work provisions were to be amended significantly to be processed by the Parliament.
According to the amendment, the requirement of carrying out emergency work due to “unexpected events” during industrial action will be removed. If the amendment is passed, it means that employers are given an extensive right to intervene in legal industrial action taken by nurses by ordering them to work on the basis of emergency work.
An official of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment said in the unofficial tripartite working group meetings arranged by the ministry that “political direction” was the reason for including the emergency work provision in the legislative proposal to be submitted to the Parliament and for it to be amended in such a way that political objectives are achieved.
The employee organisations representatives were shocked to hear this. They notified the officials that the emergency work provision cannot be amended in this process, as emergency work is bound to an EU directive and political direction cannot bypass what is legally possible. The organisations also reminded the officials of their duties and that amending the Working Time Act provision had not been prepared in a tripartite process and it was not included in the consultation round.
After this, the ministry changed amended the draft law so that the emergency work provision of the Working Time Act would not be changed. However, after this, the ministry officials amended the draft law one more time without notifying the tripartite working group. In the latest amendment, the officials secretly included the extension of emergency work in the format specified by “political direction”.
According to the final government proposal and the new section, carrying out emergency work during industrial action would no longer require any unexpected events, but emergency work could be carried out in the social and healthcare sector to prevent industrial action , for example, and not to meet actual emergency needs.
Before the government proposal became public, a ministry official stated in a message sent to a member of the tripartite working group that only a “technical amendment” was included in the proposal. This is not the case. The amendments were large-scale, of substance and integral and they were made public to the members of the working group specifically appointed for the preparation of the act only after the proposal had been submitted to the Parliament. The Parliament may now believe that the draft law has been prepared properly.
“This law is anything but properly prepared. The determination to impede on nurses’ right to industrial action is so high that people are willing to bypass the Constitution of Finland, EU directives and official duties. We will not condone this and recommend that all of our members sign the report of an offence. Tehy members can do this online at the Tehy website at tehy.fi/rikosilmoitus,” says Millariikka Rytkönen.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment is violating agreements that are binding to Finland
In the investigation request submitted by Tehy to the police, the trade union specified that, in the course of the procedure, the officials of the ministry have violated the agreements on the tripartite preparation of labour legislation and occupational protection provisions that Finland is bound to. Furthermore, the officials have violated the instructions on assessing the impact of legislative proposals, instructions on hearing processes and the provisions that the instructions are based on.
In the impact assessment of the government proposal submitted to the Parliament, there is no assessment of the last-minute exceptions to the rest period, additional work and overtime consent and night work provisions laid down in the Working Time Act, i.e., the practical definition of emergency work.
“The impact assessment only considers the effects on the exercise of the right to industrial action. The amendment to the working time protection with regard to the last-minute inclusion has not been assessed at all,” says Tehy Head of Legal Services Kari Tiainen.
Perhaps the most unbelievable aspect of all of this is that, in the legislative proposal to the Parliament, it is not specified that the statement of the Council of Regulatory Impact Analysis applies to a legislative proposal with completely different content—a version in which emergency work provisions remain unchanged.
“This type of action is misleading the Parliament to the highest degree. Every Member of Parliament has the right to access accurate information, and the government must be open about the matter. Without knowing the process, it is easy to get the impression that the amendments to the emergency work provisions would have also been assessed and that the Council of Regulatory Impact Analysis’ statement also includes assessments of the amendments to emergency work,” says Tiainen.
Tehy would like to remind that, according to the Constitution of Finland, officials are personally responsible for the lawfulness of their acts as officials. Tehy believes that the police must initiate and carry out an extensive criminal investigation of the matter.
Tehy offers its members the possibility to sign the report of an offence until 30 April 2025.
Enquiries: Tehy Head of Legal Services Kari Tiainen, [email protected], tel. +358 (0)40 500 0430.