National and Community-wide group cooperation

Group cooperation is a cooperation procedure where employees receive information about the activities of a Finnish or Community-scale group of companies and can be consulted when decisions affecting their position and employment are made in the group.

A group of companies has a Community dimension when it has employees in at least two Member States of the European Economic Area (EEA). 

The prerequisite for national (domestic) group cooperation is that the group of companies has at least 500 employees in Finland. 

International group cooperation concerns Community-scale groups of companies, which have 150 employees in at least two EEA Member States and at least 1,000 employees in total in the EEA. In a group of companies fulfilling these conditions, the primary body of group cooperation is the Euro-pean Works Council (EWC). 

Group cooperation can be organised at both domestic and European level through agreements. If no agreements have been concluded, the secondary provisions contained in the Act on Co-operation within Finnish and Community-wide Groups of Undertakings (335/2007) apply. 

The Cooperation Ombudsman monitors compliance with not only the said act, but also with agreements concluded on group cooperation.

Failure to comply may result in a request for an investigation by the Cooperation Ombudsman and, as a result, criminal sanctions.