Collective agreements
A collective agreement is an agreement between an employee organisation and the employer or an employer organisation on the terms of work concerning a specific industry which are complied with in that industry. Collective agreements may include provisions on pay, working hours, holidays, compensation for periods of illness, periods of notice etc. The agreements are industry-specific and often also bound to occupational position. The pay and other terms of employment for those working in the public sector are determined in civil servants’ collective agreements. A collective agreement may be normally binding or generally binding.
A normally binding collective agreement obligates those parties that have signed the agreement. An employer that belongs to an organisation that entered into the agreement shall also comply with the normally binding collective agreement when the employee is not a member of the organisation that entered into the agreement.
A generally binding collective agreement means that also unorganised employers shall comply with at least the provisions that have been agreed on in the national collective agreement for the industry in question. The Committee for confirming the general applicability of collective agreements confirms by its decision whether a national collective agreement is generally binding.
The generally binding collective agreements and decisions of the Committee for confirming the general applicability of collective agreements are published on the Finlex website. In addition, the agreements between the central unions of the labour market, the compliance with which as part of the collective agreement appears from each collective agreement, are published on the website.