Solutions are sought through cooperation and change negotiations

Cooperation is a continuous dialogue between the employer and the employees. The Cooperation Act applies to companies that regularly employ at least 50 employees.

The purpose of the Co-operation Act is to promote a workplace culture in which the employer and the personnel act in a spirit of co-operation, respecting each other’s rights and obligations and taking into account each other’s interests. In addition, the purpose of the act is to continuously develop the company’s operations and work community, and to improve the effectiveness of operations and well-being at work.

The purpose of the act is also to ensure sufficient and timely communication between the employer and the personnel, and to ensure that the personnel have a say in the company’s decision-making when matters concern employees.

The Co-operation Act consists of three components:

1. Continuous dialogue between the employer and the personnel
2. Change negotiations, for example before dismissals or layoffs
3. Personnel representative is presented in the company’s administration (when the company has at least 150 employees).

Continuous dialogue

Dialogue must take place at least quarterly.

In smaller companies with 20–49 employees, dialogue must be organized twice a year.

Change negotiations

The Act on Co-operation requires that change negotiations are held. Change negotiations, often referred to as co-operation negotiations, are mandatory negotiations before certain changes, such as dismissals, layoffs or part-time work. The number of employees determines whether an employer needs to have change negotiations or not.

The purpose of the negotiations is to review the effects of the changes and look for alternatives together.

The employer must start change negotiations, for example, when it is considering

• unilaterally changing an essential term of one or more employees’ employment contract on financial or production grounds
• dismissals
• layoffs
• layoffs