Finland Times

     Zero-hour is a term referring to an employment contract in which employers do not guarantee employees' work hours and income.

     The initiative to ban zero-hour contracts was launched in January this year by young trade union activists in Finland. So far, over 50,000 signatures have been collected. It requires lawmakers to take it into consideration by July this year.

     The main aim of the citizens' initiative is to ensure that part-time workers are offered contracts, which could guarantee a minimum of 18 hours work per week.

     The initiatives also expressed their opposition to probation periods and temporary layoffs to secure part-time workers' employment.

     Recent statistics conducted by the Statistic Finland have shown that there are about 83,000 people in Finland working on zero-hour contracts, accounting for about 4 percent of the country's employees.

     The Citizens' Initiative Act of Finland, which came into force in 2012, enables a minimum of 50,000 citizens of voting age to submit an initiative to the Finnish Parliament to enact a law. The act gives citizens six month time to reach their goal.

     In November 2014, the Finnish Parliament's approval of same-sex marriage was a result of a citizens' initiative.