Content of change negotiations

The topic addressed in change negotiations must include at least the grounds and effects of and alternatives to the measures targeted at the personnel. If necessary, the negotiations may also address other emerging questions that are essential for the topic under discussion.

The content of the change negotiations is defined in the same manner for all measures. However, the nature and level of detail of the discussion depend on the significance of the measure and the extent of the matter. In practice, this can be seen in, for example, the fact that for some topics a single meeting is enough while the addressing of other topics may require many meetings over a period of several weeks.

Grounds

In the first place, the addressing of the grounds requires that the employer explains the reasons and needs behind the measure they are considering. In addition, the employer must describe the more detailed content of the measures.

The aim in addressing the grounds is for the negotiation parties to reach consensus regarding the reasons behind the matter as well as the content and extent of the change.

Effects

When it comes to the effects, it must be noted that the employer must have described the measures under consideration already in the negotiation proposal. However, the need for reductions and the targeting of the planned measures to different locations and personnel groups, for example, may be addressed in more detail in the negotiations. At the same time, the effects that the implementation of the measures potentially has on the work arrangements and competence of the remaining employees should be addressed. The purpose is that all the essential personnel impacts, for which the workplace needs to prepare for due to the change, would be identified in the negotiations.

Alternatives

The change negotiations must also address different alternatives in order to reach the pursued goal.

If other alternatives have already been presented before the actual negotiations, they should be explained in the negotiations, too. If no alternative solution models as such exist, it is still a good idea to discuss alternatives available among the different implementation methods with personnel impacts.

The discussion about alternatives does not need to be restricted solely on the measure addressed in the negotiations; instead, the parties may also bring different solution alternatives to the discussion.

On the content of the negotiations to reduce the use of labour

When negotiations are related to employment contract terminations, lay-offs or reductions of the employment contract to a part-time contract concerning one or more employees or unilateral changes to essential conditions of the employment contract, the topics addressed must also include:

• Alternatives in order to limit the number of people affected by the measure and to alleviate the negative consequences of the measure to employees. 
  • The alternatives may be associated with, for example:
    • training and relocation arrangements,
    • working time arrangements or
    • different voluntary arrangements, such as
      • study leave or
      • pension solutions.
  • The alleviation of the consequences to employees refers to the use of social measures, such as transition security.  
• Proposals and alternative solutions by the employee representative or an employee.

Negotiations must be conducted in the spirit of co-operation in order to reach consensus

The change negotiations must be conducted in the spirit of co-operation to reach consensus. Both parties must act constructively and seek to contribute to the progress of the negotiations.