Labour and Employment Comparative Guide

1 Legal framework

1.1 Are there statutory sources of labour and employment law?

In general, employment and labour law consists both of national and international legal norms. The Employment Contracts Act (55/2001) is the general employment law. In the public sector, the applicable general law is the Act on Public Officials in Central Government (750/1994). In addition, there are several special statutes on matters such as annual leave, working hours and labour protection. Some of the main special laws regulating employment relationships in Finland include:

• the Annual Holidays Act (162/2005);
• the Working Hours Act (872/2019);
• the Act on Cooperation within Undertakings (1333/2021) (‘Cooperation Act'); and