Undertakings that regularly employ at least thirty employees shall have a working environment committee on which the employer and the employees shall have an equal number of representatives; see Section 7-1 of the Working Environment Act.The average number of employees during the past calendar year shall form the basis for the decision on whether to establish a working environment committee. When calculating the number of employees, all employees who work at least 20 hours a week shall be counted.The employer appoints its own representatives on the committee. The employer, the person who runs the undertaking on the employer’s behalf or, when the activities are extensive, a representative of the executive management, shall always be a member of the working environment committee.The senior safety representative shall be one of the employees’ representatives on the committee and shall have voting rights. If the undertaking has several senior safety representatives, they shall elect one joint representative. If there is only one safety representative in the undertaking, he or she shall be a member of the committee. The employees elect the rest of their representatives by majority vote. Only employees of the undertaking can be elected.Personnel in the occupational health service, cf. Section 3-3 of the Working Environment Act, cannot be elected as representatives of the employer or employees. At least one representative of the occupational health service shall be a permanent member of the committee.
