Employee protection against dismissal must not be weakened
SuPer continues to oppose the government’s draft proposal, which aims to facilitate dismissal on personal grounds. According to the proposal, the requirement for gravity of the reason for dismissal would be removed and a valid reason would be sufficient for dismissal in the future. Contrary to what was agreed in the government programme, the relocation obligation — a key safeguard for employment continuity — is now also being weakened. SuPer has issued a statement on the matter on 7.4.2025.
The legislative amendment proceeded to Parliament on 23 October, and changes proposed prior concerning the warning procedure and the employee’s underperformance have been removed from the proposal. These are clearly steps in the right direction, but SuPer continues to question the necessity and justification of the entire legislative project.
“The government’s proposal is part of a broader attempt to weaken the rights and position of employees at the workplace,” says SuPer’s President Päivi Inberg. “The weakening of protection against dismissal, combined with the weakening of unemployment security implemented already in 2024, means that an increasing number of Finns are at risk of falling into a worsening economic situation.
The proposal aims to increase employment in small and medium-sized companies. SuPer estimates that the proposal would significantly undermine the statutory employment security of approximately 2.1 million employees — extending its impact far beyond the original scope, including large employers. Job security is a key part of Finnish labour law and weakening it would violate the principles of employee protection, loyalty and the binding nature of contracts.
The economic impacts estimated in the draft proposal are minor, and it has not been possible to reliably demonstrate its assumed positive impacts related to employment, unemployment or unemployment security. The positive effects of lowering the threshold for dismissal proposed by the government are largely based on unfounded assumptions. The proposal is unlikely to increase employment.
SuPer finds it particularly problematic that the weakening of employees’ job security is justified, even in part, by the legal risks of dismissal and employers’ lack of expertise. Lowering the threshold for dismissal does not eliminate the legal challenges related to dismissal. On the contrary, it could increase uncertainty and ambiguity in the labour market, as the true threshold for dismissal would only become clear over time through case law.
“The changes made to the government’s first proposal to weaken the protection against dismissal are welcome,” says Inberg. “However, they are not enough to remedy the problematic nature of the legislative project, especially when combined with weakened unemployment security and the lack of an active labour market policy.”
Published in English 27.10.2025.
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