During the autumn, a discussion on legislation concerning termination of employment has stirred the nation. The Government’s goal is to lower the threshold for employment by reducing the regulation related to cases of termination of employment especially in such a way that the size of the company could be better taken into account. The Government has given a proposal regarding the matter.

The proposal will amend the Employment Contracts Act and the Employment Security Act. Regarding the Employment Contracts Act, the amendment concerns the termination grounds related to the employee’s person in such a way that more attention will be paid to the size of the company when the appropriateness and weight of the grounds for termination of employment are evaluated.

Regarding the Employment Security Act, the time periods without benefits will be amended in such a way that when the termination arises from the person themselves, the suspension period would be 60 days in the future. At present it is 90 days.

The amendment can be considered reasonable. When regulations related to termination of employment are loosened, it is also reasonable to loosen the consequences related to unemployment security. In addition, the amendment will be implemented so that the shorter suspension period does not only concern those whose termination of employment is related to the size of the company. So the amendment concerns everyone whose employment is terminated on grounds related to the employee’s person.

As a result of the proposal, the situation with the Unemployment Security Act will be interesting, as the suspension period will be 90 days if you give a notice yourself, but 60 days if you cause the termination of employment, i.e. the employer gives a notice. Time will tell whether that will cause problems in practice.