A new but increasing phenomenon, arbitration as a dispute resolution method in workplace disputes, a possible or impossible model in Finland?

When it comes to resolving disputes, planning before the conflict has arisen has become more and more a substantiated phenomena around the world. It is interesting to analyse and explore whether this could be possible also in solving work related individual disputes in Finland by other means. The typical solving method is through litigation, in Finnish district courts. However, This often requires a greater amount of resources and time than what a normal employee might not have, at least they would be in a weaker position than the employer in court. Thus, other ways to resolve these types of disputes do exist, Nevertheless, among litigation there are alternative dispute resolution methods. One of the methods is part of the research question of this paper, so-called Arbitration. Arbitration is private, efficient and usually less costly than litigation. It is highly used in business related disputes between two businesses in Finland, but it is intriguing to gain knowledge if it is used or could be used in individual disputes concerning work related disputes. The main focus will be in Finland because arbitration is not relatively used as much as it is in other countries in individual disputes, especially in employment relationships. What makes everything complicated and Finland an interesting topic is the availability of a labour court that doesn’t resolve all labour disputes, the vital principles that protect weaker parties like the employers and many other laws which interfere with arbitration. It is not solemnly up to the parties to go with arbitration even though arbitration is described as a process that is voluntary and time efficient. The features of arbitration would probably be ideal for both employees and employers, but there are downsides which will be explained and demonstrated in a more detailed manner. Even though it would be ideal, especially for workers to receive the verdict or judgement sooner in cases like illegal determination of work contract, there are other perks lost when one chooses arbitration over litigation. One of these includes the legal-aid the state offers in Finland, which is not admitted to arbitration. This might or mostly does put the employee and employer in an unpleasant disadvantage even though arbitration considered the parties to be equal. Along with these other values are considered and weighted along the research. Thus, Our main focus is whether arbitration could be possible or even allowed to be used in Finland in individual work related disputes, if not, maybe there could be an opening soon for arbitration in the future.