Laws and regulations at work - yhteiskuntaorientaatio.fi
Employee and employer rights and obligations are dictated by law
- Both employees and employers have rights and obligations. These are defined by laws and collective agreements. When both parties comply with the agreements, work runs smoothly.
- The most important rights of an employee are:
- Receiving a salary which is in accordance with the collective agreement
- Having work protected by laws and agreements
- Being allowed to be in a union
- Having a safe and healthy work environment.
- The employer’s rights include:
- Deciding who to employ
- Overseeing and directing the work
- Giving instructions and orders
- Terminating an employment relationship if certain terms apply.
An employee has many obligations. If they do not adhere to these, the employment relationship can even be terminated.
An employee’s obligations include:
- Doing the work well
- Complying with the employer’s instructions and workplace rules. For example, you are not allowed to come to work drunk and the employer’s property cannot be stolen or broken on purpose.
- Keeping trade secrets on behalf of the employer
- Protecting the employer’s interest
- Abstaining from activities competing with the employer.
Many professions, such as those in the healthcare field, also require confidentiality. This means that an employee is under no circumstances allowed to tell others what they hear or what types of documents they see in their work. Confidentiality is compulsory.
An employer also has obligations toward their employees. An employer must:
- Comply with laws and agreements
- Treat all employees equally and without discrimination
- Ensure work safety
- Provide the employee with the central terms of the employment relationship in writing
- Promote a good working environment, employees’ performance and professional development
Labour laws protect the employee
Labour legislation is comprised of many different laws. The most important legislation for an employee is the Employment Contracts Act, Working Hours Act and Annual Holidays Act. The Non-Discrimination Act is also integral. It protects the employee and jobseeker from discrimination based on, for example, language, origin or religion.
All workplaces must comply with legislation. Almost all fields also have to comply with collective agreements. Laws and collective agreements define the minimum terms for an employment relationship. These apply equally to both Finnish and foreign employees.
Collective agreements are made by trade unions and employer unions together. They often agree on better terms than what is legally required. Compliance with labour laws is supervised by the occupational safety and health authority.
The Employment Contracts Act defines the obligations of the employer and employee
The Employment Contracts Act regulates the following:
- How an employment contract is composed
- The obligations of the employer and employee
- Equality of employees
- The minimum terms of the employment relationship
- Employees’ rights to parental leave
- How employees can be laid off
- How an employment contract ends
- Liability for damages at work
- The position of employee representatives.
The Working Hours Act regulates employee working hours
Työaikalaissa säädetään siitä, millainen on työntekijöiden säännöllinen työaika. Lähtökohtaisesti Suomessa säännöllistä työtä saa tehdä enintään 8 tuntia päivässä ja 40 tuntia viikossa.
The collective agreements of different fields may grant permission to agree on different working hours within the limits of the Working Hours Act. This means that the working hours may occasionally exceed eight hours a day, provided that they are less than eight hours on another day.
The Working Hours Act also regulates overtime. Overtime refers to work done in addition to the regular working hours. Overtime is only allowed when requested by the employer. A higher wage must always be paid for overtime.
The Annual Holidays Act regulates holiday pay and holidays
An employee accumulates a certain number of days of paid holiday. This is known as the annual holiday (vuosiloma). The Annual Holidays Act provides for the holiday pay (vuosilomapalkka), the holiday compensation (lomakorvaus) and the granting of an annual holiday.
The length of the holiday and the holiday pay depend on the duration of the employment relationship and the number of working hours. In a full-time employment relationship which has lasted over a year, employees earn a minimum of 2.5 days of holiday each month. If the employment relationship has lasted under a year, a minimum of two days of holiday is earned each month.
As a rule, most of the holiday should be held during the summer holiday season between May and September. Sometimes, an employment relationship ends so that the employee does not have the time to use all their earned holiday days. In such a case, they receive paid compensation for unused holiday days.
More information about annual holidays: Finnish working life (infofinland.fi)
Collective agreements dictate salaries and other terms for employment
It is important for an employee to know what collective agreements are. Collective agreements are contracts made together by trade unions and employer unions. These agreements dictate salaries and other employment terms in different fields. Terms for employment include working hours, breaks and annual holidays.
The employer can agree to terms for employment in their own employment contract which are better than those written in the collective agreement. It is not possible to agree on terms of employment which are worse than those in the collective agreement.
Collective agreements usually dictate better terms of employment than legislation. Almost all fields have their own collective agreement. For example, the commerce sector, construction sector and restaurant industry have their own collective agreements. Collective agreements are binding.
The correct collective agreement can be most easily found using a search engine and using the Finnish or Swedish term for your field and the word “työehtosopimus” as the search term, for example “ravintola työehtosopimus”. Some collective agreements have summaries in other languages, usually English. If there is a dispute over how to interpret or follow a collective agreement, the case is dealt with and resolved in the Labour Court (työtuomioistuin).
On the one hand, the purpose of collective agreements is to ensure employees a minimum requirement for terms of employment, and on the other hand their purpose is to ensure industrial peace. Industrial peace means that when a collective agreement is in force, employees cannot go on strike to demand better pay.
Collective agreements are almost always fixed term and they are in force for a couple of years at a time. After this, the collective agreement is renegotiated. Collective agreements are compiled in cooperation with employer and employee representatives. The negotiations include trade unions representing the workers, and the representatives of employers.
The many regulations of work
Rules and regulations may vary in different workplaces. Many matters are dictated by labour legislation and collective agreements. All employers must comply with these rules.
Sick leave must always be reported to the employer
Employees may never be absent from work without a reasonable cause. If an employee falls ill, they must immediately notify the employer by calling or according to the customs of the workplace. Every workplace has its own rules about how many days an employee may be absent from work without a doctor’s certificate.
If an employee’s child under the age of 10 falls ill and both parents or the child’s only parent is in the workforce, the employee has the right to take care of the child at home for four working days. It is possible to receive pay for this period if the applicable collective agreement includes this right.
When an employee has worked for a minimum of one month, the employer must pay the employee a regular salary for the first ten days of sick leave. If the sick leave continues longer than this, Kela will pay sickness allowance (sairauspäiväraha) to the employee. The collective agreement can state that the employer must pay the regular sick leave pay for more than ten days. In this case, Kela will reimburse some of the costs of the sick leave pay to the employer.
The right to take appointed breaks during a workday
During a workday, employees have breaks. The number of breaks and their length depend on the length of the workday. You can check your own field’s collective agreement to see what has been stated about breaks. If a workday lasts over six hours, the employee has the right to a minimum of a half hour break during the workday. If an employee works for eight hours a day, they usually have one longer meal break and two short coffee breaks.
The half hour meal break is usually not included in paid working time and you can leave the workplace for this break. The coffee break is included in working time and this must be spent at the workplace.
Personal phone use may be restricted during the workday
An employee is not allowed to manage personal matters during working hours. Typically the use of personal phones is restricted during working hours. Employees are, however, allowed to use their phones during breaks and manage personal matters then. If an employer provides an employee with a work phone, it is usually only meant for business use.
Everybody has the right to equal treatment and non-discrimination
All discrimination and harassment is forbidden in Finland. This also applies to workplaces. The Non-Discrimination Act and the Act on Equality between Women and Men (Equality Act) ensures these rights to all people.
The Non-Discrimination Act protects from discrimination
This means discrimination based on age, origin, nationality, language, religion, belief, opinion, political activity, trade union activity, family relations, state of health, disability, sexual orientation or other personal characteristics. At work, the Non-Discrimination Act must be followed when hiring employees, during the whole employment relationship and when the employment relationship ends.
According to law, employers have the obligation to promote non-discrimination in all their activities and, for instance, promote the employment of disabled people and their getting along at work. If the employer does not agree to making reasonable adjustments required by the disabled employee, the employer may be guilty of discrimination against a disabled person.
More information on disability rights: Disabled in Finland
The Equality Act forbids discrimination based on gender
Law forbids discrimination and granting employees a different status based on gender, pregnancy, childbirth, gender identity or gender expression. According to the Equality Act, the employer has the obligation to promote equality in all their activities. Men and women must have similar opportunities for progressing in their careers.
Non-discrimination and equality are not always actualised
In Finland, non-discriminatory treatment and equality are very important both generally and at work. Policymakers, authorities and trade unions continue to do a lot of work to make these a reality. But an equal society is never fully ready. For example, in predominantly female fields, salaries are still noticeably lower than in predominantly male fields. Men are more frequently in leadership positions.
In recent years, there has been more discussion in Finland about the position of immigrants as jobseekers and employees. Some immigrants feel that finding employment in Finland is more difficult for those who have moved from another country than for native Finns. A part of the reason for the difficulty of employment is that many jobs require good skills in Finnish or Swedish, which often takes time to develop.
However, another part of this is prejudice and even racist discrimination. Employees may, for instance, demand better Finnish or Swedish skills than the job actually requires. Research shows that employees with a foreign-sounding name need to send more job applications to get into an interview than jobseekers with a Finnish-sounding name. This is the case even when the applicants’ experience and language skills are the same.
If you experience discrimination, you can contact the authorities
Discrimination, harassment or unequal treatment for any reason at work does not have to be tolerated.
If you feel that you have been discriminated against or treated unequally due to age, origin, nationality, language, religion, belief, opinion, political activity, trade union activity, family relations, state of health, disability, sexual orientation or any other characteristic, you can contact the occupational safety and health authority (työsuojeluviranomainen) or Non-Discrimination Ombudsman (yhdenvertaisuusvaltuutettu).
You can contact the Ombudsman for Equality (tasa-arvovaltuutettu) if you experience discrimination based on gender, gender identity or gender expression.
- More information on the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman: Non-Discrimination Ombudsman (yhdenvertaisuusvaltuutettu.fi) (Finnish, Swedish, English, North Sámi, in part also: Somali, German, Estonian, Spanish, French, Russian, Portuguese, Turkish, Albanian, Farsi, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Kurdish, Romanian, Polish, Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian, Hungarian, Inari Sámi, Skolt Sámi, Chinese, Thai, Nepali, Bengali, Urdu)
- More information on the Ombudsman for Equality: Ombudsman for Equality (tasa-arvo.fi)(Finnish, Swedish, English, North Sámi, in part also: easy Finnish, Estonian, Somali, Arabic, Russian)
- More information on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration: Occupational Safety and Health Administration Equality and discrimination (Tyosuojelu.fi) (Finnish, Swedish, English)
Trade union members receive help for problems at work and for job seeking
When a person is a member of a trade union, they pay a membership fee to the union. The membership fee may be a fixed annual payment or a small percentage of each month’s salary, for example 1.5%. The trade union membership fee is deducted from taxes. This means that the payment reduces the amount of income on which tax is calculated, resulting in a slightly lower tax percentage.
Membership in a trade union can be beneficial for an employee for many reasons. Membership in a trade union increases the negotiation power of employees with employers. This is why it has been considered valuable in Finland that employees are trade union members. A bit over half of wage earners in Finland are members of a trade union.
Trade unions defend the rights of their members. If there are problems at work, trade unions provide support and help. Trade unions can help, for instance, if an employee is not paid salaries belonging to them. Trade unions also provide support for job seeking and unemployment. Trade unions help their members with networking and developing professional competencies.
Trade unions also offer their members many membership benefits, for example, cheaper insurances, discounts, holiday locations, trainings or coaching. More information can be found on each trade union’s website.
A member of an unemployment fund can receive earnings-related unemployment security
Members of trade unions are usually also members of an unemployment fund. If a person becomes unemployed, they usually have the right to receive earnings-related unemployment security from the unemployment fund for a certain time.
The earnings-related unemployment security is calculated based on salary from the period during which the person was employed before becoming unemployed. This is larger than Kela’s basic unemployment allowance.
More information about unemployment allowance in Unemployment and retirement
The shop steward supports and helps employees at the workplace
At large workplaces, trade union members are represented by shop stewards (luottamushenkilö). They are chosen through an election among the employees. The shop steward oversees that the employer abides by collective agreements and labour laws in the workplace. The shop steward’s purpose is to support and help employees and to intervene in problem situations. The shop steward makes sure that employees are treated equally and justly at work.
Not all workplaces have a shop steward. In such a case, employees can choose an employee as an employee representative (luottamusvaltuutettu) or seek help from their own trade union. An employee representative does not have as broad duties and mandates as a shop steward.
An employer needs to know their obligations toward employees
An employer is anyone who hires another person as an employee. An employer needs to be aware of work-related legislation and employer obligations. Employers must find out if there is a universally binding collective agreement in force in their field. A universally binding collective agreement’s orders, for instance, about minimum wage must be complied with even if the employer does not belong to an employer union. The employer should also tell employees about their rights and obligations.
More information about employer obligations: Checklist of employer’s obligations (Tyosuojelu.fi – Occupational Safety and Health Administration) (Finnish, Swedish, English)