Lex Gaudius

PRODUCT SAFETY DIRECTIVE- HOW SAFE ARE THE PRODUCTS WE BUY?

The law applied to product safety in Finland is kuluttajaturvallisuuslaki 920/2011. The EU legislation in this field is the General Product Safety Directive (GPSD). According to the GPSD Article 6: “1. Member States shall ensure that producers and distributors comply with their obligations under this Directive in such a way that products placed on the market are safe”. According to the Directive, the products are presumed to be safe if they correspond with either European Union SFS standards or national standards of the country the goods are going to be used in. The provisions of this Directive are applicable to “any item intended for sale to, or likely to be used by, consumers, whether it is new, used or reconditioned. The Commission is the body to take care of products safety in the EU. The Member States “shall keep the Commission informed and the commission shall pass on such information to the other Member States”.

The Finnish domestic regulation kuluttajaturvallisuuslaki §12 provides that product which is not marked by the CE-mark, cannot be allowed to the market at all. The product has to be proven safe while entering the country. Rapid Exchange information system (RAPEX) is an alert system for dangerous products. If the product is new in the EU market, the employee at the border has to check the product with RAPEX and if some alert has been found, ban the product and inform the commission about it. RAPEX cannot be used on food and pharmaceuticals. RAPEX is an effective system: in 2018 this alert system removed more than 2,000 dangerous products from the European market.
The most recent cases consist of products, the consumer targets of which are children. This could be an issue to worry about, but States are obliged to supervise the safety of goods coming to their markets and report every abnormality to the Commission. It is possible to recall dangerous products and thus ensure people’s health. How the system works: the recent alert from Finland was about basic working gloves that everyone has in their gardens while working in the yard. The gloves became an alert subject because “the product contains nitrobenzene”. Nitrobenzene is readily absorbed through the skin, is haematotoxin, can damage the testicles and spermatogenesis, and might cause cancer when inhaled or in contact with the skin.” The product was not safe for people’s health. Therefore, the import of such products was rejected at the border. The alerts are updated every week on the European Commission website. Surprisingly, the majority of the current alerts are about facemasks. In one of these cases, masks arrived from China and have been reported by Ireland. There were no dangerous substances, but since masks are claimed to protect from viruses and their “filtering capacity has not been certified by a relevant (European body)”, they did not pass to the customers. The third example of RAPEX alarm is the case reported by Finland. In this case, earrings contained “an excessive amount of cadmium”. “Cadmium is harmful to human health because it accumulates in the body, can damage the kidney and bones, and it may cause cancer.” This product also did not pass over the Finnish border.

# -at-law

YLE has in its article announced that NESTE has terminated employment contracts of 370 workers due to the low economic gains from fossil fuel caused by the covid-19 pandemic. According to NESTE, when it comes to oil, they are in a difficult situation, also predicting that it is unlikely that the fossil fuel will rise in selling after the pandemic due to the rising of renewable energy use and the constant developing process in its business operational environment. At the time of the terminations of contracts by Neste due to the Covid-19, there was a temporary change in the Finnish labour law, which provides that the employment contract can be cancelled if there are unexpected financial or production-related causes.

Let’s take a look at the Finnish law and what it provides about the termination of an employment contract. Termination of an employment contract can be unjust if an employer terminates the employment relationship without a substantial and legitimate reason. According to Finnish employment legislation, the termination can be based on a proper and weighty reason related to the employee’s person. As an example, this clause refers to a situation where an employee has severely breached their contractual obligations. However, if the breach is not serious, the employee cannot be fired, before they have been given a warning and a chance to amend their conduct. Before the actual termination, the employer is obliged to have a conversation with the employee and offer him another position within the firm to avoid the termination of the employment relation. Other legitimate grounds for terminating the employment contract are financial or production-related reasons. “An employment contract shall not be terminated, however, if the employee can be placed in or trained for other duties.” If the termination has been proven unjustified, the employee has a right to reimbursement equivalent to the salary for a minimum of three months to a maximum of 24 months. The amount of the reimbursement is calculated based on the length of the employment, age of the employee and the possibility of the person to be employed in the future.
Also if the employment contract has been terminated but the employer requires a new employee during the first four months after the termination has occurred, the employer is obligated by the Finnish law to rehire the discharged employee even if there is a new and a better candidate for that job position. Regardless the terms of the contract don't need to be the same as with the first contract. In case of a person who has worked for that same job over 12 years, the timeline is expanded from four months to six months.

Hopefully, the termination of a contract does not occur to your life, but if such misfortune has knocked your door, here are some steps you can take if there is a doubt that the termination of your contract is unjust. Your first step is to evaluate whether the termination of your employment contract seems unjustified. You may also keep yourself updated by checking the most recent government decisions and whether there is a permanent or temporary change due to the different circumstances. And if you are still sure that you have been unjustly discharged by your employer you may want to contact a legal professional.