Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1997, published 86th ILC session (1998)

Employment Injury Benefits Convention, 1964 [Schedule I amended in 1980] (No. 121) - Finland (Ratification: 1968)

Article 8 of the Convention. In reply to the Committee's previous comments, the Government confirms that the list of the physical, chemical or biological agents present in work and the typical pathological manifestations likely to be caused by the agent in question, contained in section 3 of Decree No. 1347 of 1988, is not exhaustive; even if a factor or disease is not mentioned in the list, a disease can be compensated for as an occupational disease if it is probably and primarily caused by subjection to a physical, chemical or biological factor at work. According to the Government, this procedure will be applied to the following diseases, which are not mentioned in Decree No. 1347 despite the fact that they figure in the list of occupational diseases (amended in 1980) in Schedule 1 to the Convention: (a) broncho-pulmonary diseases caused by hard-metal dust (item No. 2); and (b) primary epitheliomatous cancer of the skin caused by tar, pitch, bitumen, mineral oil, anthracene, or the compounds, products or residues of these substances (item No. 27). The Committee notes this information with interest. It would like the Government to indicate how in practice the workers afflicted with the above diseases can benefit from the presumption of their occupational origin when they are engaged in work involving exposure to the risks concerned, and on whom rests the burden of proof.

The Committee has also taken note of the observations presented by the Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK).

Article 21 of the Convention. The Committee takes note of some statistical data covering the implementation of this Article of the Convention which calls for the adjustment of long-term benefits due in case of employment injury. In order to fully assess the situation the Committee would like the Government to supply in its next report all the statistical data requested under Article 21 (questions B, C and D) by the report form adopted by the Governing Body.