Proposals and alternative solutions presented in the negotiations

One of the goals of the Act on Co-operation is to improve the employees’ opportunities to exert influence and highlight the interactive nature of the change negotiations.

For this reason, the employee or the employee representative participating in the negotiations has been given the right to present written proposals and alternative solutions to be discussed in the negotiations. There are no detailed provisions on the content of proposals or alternative solutions. Nevertheless, proposals and alternative solutions should be related to the topics of the negotiations and associated especially with content-related questions.

Proposals or alternative solutions must be presented in writing and well before the meeting, in which they are wished to be discussed. In practice, they are special questions and the employer must have the chance to prepare for them in advance.

In addition, the parties can certainly also present to each other, both orally and directly during the negotiations, proposals or alternative solution models related to the matter at hand.

Employer must provide a written account of the alternative solution 

If the employer does not consider the proposal made by the employee party to be appropriate or feasible, the employer must declare, in writing, the reasons behind this during the negotiations and without undue delay.

The requirements set for the declaration depend on the nature and extent of the matter.

In any case, on the basis of the declaration, the employee representative should be able to form an understanding of why the employer does not consider the proposal to be appropriate or feasible. As far as possible, the declaration should be gone through in the negotia-tions although this is not specifically required by law.