Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1994, published 81st ILC session (1994)

Employment Promotion and Protection against Unemployment Convention, 1988 (No. 168) - Finland (Ratification: 1990)

1. The Committee has examined the first report of the Government as well as the legislation supplied with it. It would be grateful if the next report would contain additional information on the following points:

Articles 7, 8 and 9 of the Convention (promotion of employment). Since Finland has ratified the Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) and the Human Resources Development Convention, 1975 (No. 142), the Committee would draw the attention of the Government to its comments regarding these instruments.

Article 10, paragraph 1. Under section 4 of the Act respecting the protection of the livelihood of unemployed persons No. 602 of 1984, the entitlement to unemployment benefit is conditional, among others, on the fact that the unemployed person has not been able to be referred to training, and the payment of benefit is further subjected, under section 9, to an obligation to take part in training. Please indicate whether the training referred to in the above provisions corresponds in all cases to the one provided under the Act on labour market training No. 763 of 1990 and, if not, what other provisions of the legislation regulate such training and ensure in particular that persons referred to training receive allowances, of which the conditions and the amount correspond to the unemployment benefit under Act No. 602 of 1984.

Article 11, paragraph 1. The Committee would like the Government to supply the statistical information required under this Article in the report form on the Convention adopted by the Governing Body, indicating the number of employees protected by the earnings-related benefit provisions as compared to the total number of employees. In this connection the Committee draws the Government's attention to the possibility of excluding from protection public employees whose employment up to normal retiring age is guaranteed by national laws or regulations, in accordance with paragraph 2 of this Article.

Article 15, paragraph 1(b), and Article 16. Please explain more fully the criteria used in determining the amount of the basic daily unemployment benefit provided under Act No. 602 of 1984, and indicate whether and how it attains the level required by the Convention.

Article 20(b). The Committee notes that under section 11 of the Act No. 602 the entitlement to unemployment benefit is suspended in the case of a person "whose behaviour has been such that a contract of employment is not concluded with him or who has himself been the reason for the termination of his employment relationship" until he has been at work or has been registered as a jobseeker for six weeks. Please indicate whether in practice the application of this provision is limited, in accordance with the Convention, only to cases where it has been determined by the competent authority that the person concerned had deliberately contributed to his or her own dismissal, and provide examples of the relevant judicial or administrative decisions.

Article 24. The Committee notes that, according to the report, receipt of the earnings-related daily unemployment allowance augments the person's pension right and the pension right of his dependants. Please indicate the relevant provisions of the national legislation.

Article 25. (a) The Committee notes, from the Government's report, that if the part-time worker's weekly working hours stand at least at 18, he can join an unemployment fund and become entitled to earnings-related unemployment benefit. It further notes that, under section 16 of Act No. 602 of 1984, his entitlement to earnings-related benefit is subject to the condition of completing a period of employment, that is, he has been engaged for at least 18 hours a week for 26 weeks in the course of the immediately preceding 24 months. The Committee would like the Government to indicate the number of part-time workers who, by working less than 18 hours per week, are thus excluded from the earnings-related benefit provisions, as well as their proportion to the total number of part-time workers.

(b) The Committee would like to point out that the adoption of the adjustment measures contemplated by this Article of the Convention is not restricted solely to the unemployment protection branch, but concerns all branches of statutory social security schemes which are based on occupational activity. It would therefore ask the Government to indicate in its next report how these schemes are adjusted to the occupational circumstances of part-time workers, for example, as is suggested in paragraph 22 of the Employment Promotion and Protection against Unemployment Recommendation, 1988 (No. 176).

Article 27, paragraph 1. Please indicate whether and under what legal provisions the claimant shall be informed in writing of the procedures available for complaint and appeal, as required by this Article of the Convention.

2. Finally, the Committee takes note of the comments on the application of this Convention made by the Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), the Finnish Employers' Confederation (STK), the Employers' Confederation of Service Industries (LTK) and the Local Authority Employers' Commission (KT), which the Government included in its report. The Committee would be grateful if the next report of the Government would contain any observations on the comments in question which it might consider useful.