History of the conciliation system

The conciliation system for labour disputes now used in Finland was established in the early 1960s. The Act on Mediation in Labour Disputes (420/1962) entered into force on 1 October 1962. A number of changes have been made to the act but they have been of technical and administrative nature. The basic principles have remained unchanged since the early 1960s. The most important provisions on the conciliation process were already included in the acts preceding the current legislation.

The acts preceding the existing act were introduced in 1925 and 1946 but there were also regulations on conciliation procedures before them.

The Finnish conciliation system is one of the three parts of the overall regulation of the labour market. The two other parts are the negotiations between labour market organisations and the Labour Court. Central labour market organisations have been examining the need to improve the conciliation system in their discussions on the development of the system of negotiations and industrial peace during the last few years.