All countries have laws in place to protect employees from harm. In Finland, for example, employees have the right to be free of discrimination and harassment in the workplace — and employers are responsible for ensuring this right is protected. Employees also have the legal right to report wrongdoing in the workplace (whistleblowing) without fear of reprisal.
In this section, we’ll cover everything you need to know about employee protection laws in Finland, including these examples and more. Understanding these laws is crucial to not only protecting your employees from harm but also avoiding legal trouble and reputational damage to your business in Finland.
Whistleblowers play a crucial role in Finnish society by calling out wrongdoing they witness at work. This ensures companies and individuals are held to account for illegal or immoral behaviour. For this reason, Finland has strong laws protecting whistleblowers and enabling them to easily make disclosures when necessary.
The Finnish Whistleblower Protection Law is based on the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive. Though there were some delays in the directive’s implementation in Finland, the new law entered into force on 1 January 2023.
According to Finland’s whistleblowing law, employers with at least 50 employees must set up whistleblowing channels that allow employees and other interested parties to easily report wrongdoing. Group companies that collectively employ 50 or more employees are allowed to establish joint channels.
Employees in Finland should be able to report breaches orally or in writing. Employers must also ensure that reports are confidential. This means that only people designated to receive and process reports should have access to reporting channels. Organisations are not obliged to allow for anonymous reports, though they can choose to do so.
A potential whistleblower in Finland should first make a report through their organisation’s internal channel, and only report to external authorities if no action is taken. Once an organisation receives a report, they must provide the whistleblower with an acknowledgement of receipt within seven days, and follow up with the actions to be taken within three months.
Finland’s whistleblowing law applies to serious breaches that endanger the public interest in specific legal fields. For example, the law covers reports of breaches of EU or national law related to product safety, competition rules, public procurement, and environmental protection. Breaches of labour law fall outside of the scope of the Whistleblower Protection Law.
Whistleblowers are usually employees of a company, but they could also be other people associated with the business who discover breaches during the course of their work. For example, a whistleblower might be:
Finland’s whistleblowing law also includes measures that protect whistleblowers from retaliation after reporting a breach. This part of the law applies to all employers, even if their small headcount means they don’t have to set up an internal whistleblowing channel.
Retaliation might include dismissal, reassignment of duties, reductions in pay, or other decisions that negatively affect the whistleblower. If an organisation chooses to make a ‘negative’ decision about a whistleblower after a disclosure, it must be able to provide justification that the decision was not based on the person’s whistleblowing activities.
Employee data protection is particularly important in Finland, and there are rules in place to protect employees’ privacy. Companies employing workers in Finland need to be aware of the rules so they understand what they can and can’t do with their employees’ data.
As Finland is a member state of the European Union, employers need to follow the rules set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The main local legislation that applies is the Data Protection Act, which came into force in 2018. There is also sector-specific legislation that employers need to be aware of, including the Act on the Protection of Privacy in Working Life. This act sets rules on the processing of employees’ and job applicants’ personal data.
Generally speaking, employers can only process the personal data of employees or job applicants when it is either:
Employers always need a valid legal reason to process employees’ personal data. Where possible, employers should collect any necessary data from employees directly to ensure they know what type of data is being collected. Collecting personal data from other sources is possible with employee consent. However, employee consent is not a valid justification for collecting data on its own because of the power imbalance between employers and employees.
Employers in Finland must follow strict rules on employee monitoring and surveillance, which are set out in the Act on the Protection of Privacy in Working Life. Specifically, employers may only operate camera surveillance in the workplace to:
Camera surveillance cannot be used for the surveillance of specific employees. Employers are also not permitted to place cameras in toilets, changing rooms, or other rooms designed for employees’ personal use.
Employers who need temporary labour sometimes choose to hire workers through a temporary work agency. This can be a useful way to deal with short-term increases in work or to replace an employee who is absent for a brief period. However, there are strict rules that apply to the use of temporary work agencies in Finland, which employers need to be aware of.
In Finland, using a temporary work agency requires an agreement between three parties: the agency, the worker, and the user company. The temporary work agency is the worker’s employer and is responsible for paying their wages. The user company directs and supervises their work.
The user company must have legal grounds for fixed-term employment, which are the same as if they hired the worker directly. For example, a user company could use labour sourced through a temporary work agency to work on a short-term project or to meet additional needs during peak seasons.
The rights of temporary agency workers in Finland are set by employment legislation and any collective bargaining agreement that applies. User companies are required to provide agency workers with a written confirmation of their terms and conditions of employment, no matter how short the employment relationship. Because temporary agency workers are employees of the agency, their terms and conditions may be different from others working directly for the user company.
User companies must tell temporary agency workers about any permanent positions that arise within the organisation and give them the opportunity to apply. This can be done by advertising the positions generally within the company, such as in a staff newsletter or noticeboard.
Employees in Finland have the right not to be discriminated against at work and in their personal lives. This means that they can’t be treated differently from others because of a protected characteristic and must be given equal access to opportunities.
The main anti-discrimination law in Finland is the Non-Discrimination Act. This prohibits discrimination in hiring, during the employment relationship, and at termination. Employers in Finland should be aware that discrimination could occur even before recruitment based on selection criteria or the job information provided.
According to the Non-Discrimination Act, discrimination means putting an employee or job applicant in a different position on the basis of one of the following protected characteristics:
Discrimination can be direct or indirect. Direct discrimination is treating an employee differently based on one of the characteristics above. For example, hiring only candidates of a specific nationality or belief system would be considered direct discrimination.
Indirect discrimination, on the other hand, is when a rule theoretically applies to everyone but disproportionately impacts certain groups. For example, including a height requirement (for a role that didn’t require it) would be an example of indirect discrimination, since this is likely to rule out more women than men.
Harassment is considered to be another form of discrimination in Finland. It’s also prohibited by the Non-Discrimination Act. It’s defined as unwanted behaviour related to a protected characteristic, which creates a threatening, degrading, or offensive atmosphere.
Anti-discrimination law in Finland requires employees to ensure discrimination and harassment do not occur in their organisations. Employees who have been subject to discrimination or harassment should first discuss the issue with their employer. They can also approach their workplace’s occupational safety representatives or workers’ representatives.
If this doesn’t resolve the issue, employees can contact the nationwide telephone service of the occupational safety and health authorities for advice. They can then bring a claim to court for compensation, involving union representatives if needed. Employers must not retaliate against employees for invoking their rights under the Non-Discrimination Act.
In Finland, equal pay for men and women is a fundamental right. That means that employers in Finland must not pay workers differently for the same work or work of equal value. Despite this, there is still a gender pay gap in Finland. There are several laws and procedures aimed at reducing it, including the Equality Act.
Employers with 30 or more employees in Finland must draw up a gender equality plan and carry out an equal pay audit every two years. This process involves reporting details of the employment of men and women in different jobs, and performing a survey of the classification of jobs, pay, and pay differences by gender.
Employers must submit the results of their report to the Ombudsman for Equality. If they find a difference in pay between genders with no acceptable explanation, they must take corrective action to resolve it.
In 2024, the EU Council and Parliament approved a new directive on pay transparency, which will come into effect in all member states by 2026. This directive will introduce several changes to the law in Finland with the aim of improving pay transparency and reducing the gender pay gap. For example, the following measures will be introduced:
Understanding what you can and can’t do as an employer is one of the biggest challenges of hiring in Finland. Get it wrong, and you could face legal action and damage to your reputation.
Our solutions protect both you and your workers, thanks to our team’s in-depth knowledge of local and international labour laws. That means you can stop worrying about compliance issues and focus on getting the job done.
The main employee protection laws in Finland cover employment contracts, equality, workplace safety and privacy. Collective agreements provide further protections that employers also need to follow.
The Employment Contracts Act (Työsopimuslaki) sets basic employer duties, including fair treatment and continuity of employment. Employers cannot give someone worse terms simply because they work part-time or have a fixed-term contract.
The Non-Discrimination Act (Yhdenvertaisuuslaki) and the Act on Equality between Women and Men (Laki naisten ja miesten välisestä tasa-arvosta) prohibit discrimination. They also require employers to promote equality and address discriminatory behaviour.
The Occupational Safety and Health Act (Työturvallisuuslaki) covers physical and mental health risks. Employers handling employee data must follow the General Data Protection Regulation (Yleinen tietosuoja-asetus) and the Act on the Protection of Privacy in Working Life (Laki yksityisyyden suojasta työelämässä).
The Co-operation Act (Yhteistoimintalaki) requires employer–staff dialogue and consultation in specified circumstances. The Whistleblower Act (Ilmoittajansuojelulaki) protects qualifying reports. A contract or company policy cannot take away mandatory employee rights.
The whistleblower act in Finland (Ilmoittajansuojelulaki) protects people who report certain work-related breaches. Their identity must remain confidential, and employers cannot dismiss or otherwise penalise them for making a protected report.
The person reporting must have reasonable grounds to believe the information is true and falls within the Act. It covers specified breaches involving areas such as procurement, financial services, safety and personal data, rather than every workplace grievance.
Employers regularly employing at least 50 people generally need an internal reporting channel. They must acknowledge reports within seven days and give feedback within three months of acknowledgement. If they do not acknowledge receipt, the three-month period starts after the seven days have passed. Feedback explains action taken or planned; the investigation need not be finished by then.
People normally report internally first. They can qualify for protection when reporting externally if no internal channel exists, they reasonably believe internal action is ineffective, or they reasonably fear retaliation.
The employee protection laws in Finland ban discrimination when hiring, during employment and when dismissing someone. Employers must also promote equality and act on discriminatory harassment.
The Non-Discrimination Act protects people against discrimination based on age, nationality, religion, disability, health and sexual orientation, among other grounds. The Act on Equality between Women and Men covers gender-related discrimination, including pregnancy, family responsibilities, gender identity and gender expression.
Discrimination can also arise from rules that appear neutral but unfairly disadvantage a protected group. Employers must make reasonable adjustments for employees and applicants with disabilities. Refusing an adjustment that the law requires can itself be discrimination.
Managers must act when they learn of discriminatory harassment. Employers regularly employing at least 30 people also need a non-discrimination plan and a separate gender-equality plan. Hiring and development decisions should use criteria relevant to the work, and employees need a way to raise concerns.
Under labour law in Finland, employers must respect privacy and data-protection rules when monitoring employees. Even with consent, they can collect only information directly necessary for the employment relationship.
The General Data Protection Regulation and the Act on the Protection of Privacy in Working Life set the rules. Employers need a clear purpose and lawful basis and must limit access and how long they keep information. They must consult or hear employees or their representatives where required and tell staff about monitoring before it starts.
Employers can use cameras to protect safety, property or production. They generally cannot target individual employees or monitor toilets, changing rooms or spaces for personal use. Any legal exception needs its own justification.
Owning the equipment does not give employers unrestricted access to emails or location data. To access an absent employee’s work messages, they must follow legal procedures, have an urgent, essential business reason and be unable to obtain consent within a reasonable time. A general IT policy is not enough.
Employers must restrict access to health information and store it separately from other employee data as well.
The employee protection laws in Finland require equal pay for women and men doing the same work or work of equal value. Employers cannot justify a pay difference simply on the basis of gender.
The Act on Equality between Women and Men looks at the work itself. Different roles can involve comparable demands and responsibilities, while a shared job title does not automatically mean everyone must receive identical pay.
Employers regularly employing at least 30 people must prepare a gender-equality plan with a pay survey, normally at least every two years. The survey covers all employees, their job classifications and the different parts of their pay. Employers must investigate clear differences and correct any they cannot justify. Employee representatives help prepare the plan and follow up on progress.
Pay discrimination based on grounds such as disability or nationality is also prohibited. As of 28 October 2026, Parliament is still considering the pay-transparency legislation, with implementation planned from January 2027. Existing equal-pay and planning duties still apply. The proposed reporting timetable is phased: employers with at least 150 employees would begin reporting specified payroll data from January 2027, while those with 100–149 employees would start from January 2030. These are proposed duties, not current 2026 reporting obligations. The proposed separate gender pay gap report would first be due on 2 May 2028 for employers with at least 150 employees, covering 2027 data, and on 2 May 2031 for those with 100–149 employees, covering 2030 data.
Under labour law in Finland, agency workers keep their employment rights while working for a client company. The agency is their employer, and the client manages their daily work.
The agency first follows any collective agreement that binds it or generally applies to its work. If none applies, it uses the client’s binding or generally applicable agreement. If neither company has an applicable agreement, pay, working hours and annual leave must at least match the terms the client is required to follow and normally gives its employees.
The agency pays wages and arranges employer insurance. The client provides induction, a safe workplace and daily supervision. It also gives the agency the information needed to manage the employment.
Agency workers normally have the same access to shared facilities and services as the client’s staff, unless objective reasons justify a difference. They must also hear about vacancies. These rights do not guarantee identical total pay to every direct employee. An assignment ending does not, by itself, give the agency lawful grounds to dismiss someone.
Under labour law in Finland, the co-operation procedure (yhteistoimintamenettely) requires ongoing dialogue with staff and consultation before certain employment decisions. Employers must discuss the reasons for proposed changes, their effects and possible alternatives before deciding.
The full private-sector rules generally apply to employers with at least 50 employees since 1 July 2025. Employers with 20–49 staff still have more limited duties covering dialogue, employment changes and business transfers.
For employers with 20–49 staff, negotiations are required when proposed measures affect at least 20 employees within 90 days. These include dismissals, moves to part-time work and major contract changes imposed for financial or production reasons. Suspending work and pay also qualifies where the shortage of work would justify redundancy; a short, temporary downturn alone does not trigger this duty.
For these workforce reductions, employers normally send a written proposal at least five days before negotiations. Talks usually last at least three weeks. The minimum is seven days where fewer than ten employees are affected, work suspensions last no more than 90 days, the employer has fewer than 50 employees or is undergoing restructuring proceedings.
The parties can agree different negotiation periods during talks. Consultation does not give staff a veto or make an otherwise unlawful dismissal valid. Where the proposal concerns at least ten redundancies, employment generally cannot end until 30 days after the proposal is submitted to the employment authority. This is separate from the consultation and individual notice periods.
The employee protection laws in Finland require employers to identify and reduce psychosocial risks at work. They must act when workload or workplace behaviour puts an employee’s health at risk.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, employers must assess risks before problems develop. These can include unrealistic deadlines, unclear responsibilities, constant interruptions, poor support, isolation and inappropriate behaviour. Managers should not wait for a formal complaint to examine how work affects employees’ health.
When an employer learns that someone’s workload is harming their health, it must investigate and take available steps to reduce the risk. That may mean changing staffing or deadlines, clarifying priorities, improving supervision or dealing with harassment. Occupational healthcare can help assess the problem and whether those changes are helping.
Employers need to record their findings, decide who will take action and check the results. They should reassess risks when work changes. Wellbeing benefits can help employees, but they cannot replace changes to working conditions that are causing harm.
Under employee protection laws in Finland, existing employment rights and duties normally pass automatically to the new employer when a business is transferred. This applies when an operating business, or an identifiable part of it, changes employer and continues the same or similar activities.
Employees keep their length of service and contractual benefits without having to resign and start again. The transfer itself does not justify dismissal. Any separate workforce changes still need lawful grounds and any required consultation.
Employees can generally claim wages and other employment payments owed before the transfer from either employer. Where co-operation duties apply, the old employer must inform staff representatives in good time before the transfer, and the new employer must provide information within one week afterwards. This includes the transfer date, reasons, effects on employees and any planned measures.
Selling shares in a company does not necessarily change who employs its staff, so a share sale alone does not automatically count as a transfer of undertaking.
Global companies trust CXC for employee protection compliance in Finland because of its more than 30 years of workforce management experience, international reach and local employment expertise. CXC supports businesses across 100+ countries, helping multinational employers manage workforce requirements consistently while accounting for local employment laws.
In Finland, employee protection involves specific obligations around collective agreements, working hours, occupational health and safety, employee benefits and termination procedures. CXC’s local employment support helps international businesses understand and address these requirements without having to develop specialist Finnish employment expertise internally.
For companies managing employees across several markets, CXC also offers the advantage of working with an experienced global workforce partner rather than coordinating multiple local providers. This gives HR and compliance teams a more consistent approach to workforce management, access to local guidance and support when employment requirements change. Speak to our team today.
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