PAYROLL REGULATIONS: FINLAND

Minimum wage

A minimum wage is not determined by law in Finland, but by the generally binding branch collective agreement.

In absence of a generally binding collective agreement for the branch or an agreement, the employer must pay the worker a habitual and reasonable compensation.

Legal working hours

The Working Hours Act stipulates that, as a rule, regular working hours must not exceed 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week.

The main rule does not prevent employers from introducing arrangements that are based on shorter working hours than the aforementioned maximums. The rule also enables arrangements whereby employees’ regular working hours are averaged out so as to create a six-day working week.

Minimum number of days/hours off:

  • As a rule, employees are entitled to an uninterrupted period of at least 11 hours off during the 24 hours following the beginning of each shift.
  • Employees who are subject to flexible working time arrangements can ask to have their daily rest period shortened to seven hours.
  • As a rule, employees must be given at least 35 hours of uninterrupted free time during each period of seven days, preferably around a Sunday.The 35-hour weekly free time entitlement can also be averaged out over a period of 14 days. However, employees must always have at least 24 hours off during each seven-day period.

Breaks

  • Employees who work more than six hours a day in a job where their physical presence at the workplace is not a requisite for the uninterrupted flow of work must, as a rule, be given a daily break of at least one hour.
  • The employer can also agree on a shorter break with their employees, albeit no shorter than half an hour. Employees must be free to leave the workplace during their break.

Leave

The number of days of annual holiday is calculated for each holiday credit year, i.e. the period between 1 April and 31 March.

An employee accrues annual holiday days as follows:

  • 2 days per month if the employee works at least 14 days or 35 hours per calendar month and the employment relationship has lasted less than a year, or
  • 2.5 days per month if the employee works at least 14 days or 35 hours per calendar month and the employment relationship has lasted more than a year. Half days of holiday are always rounded up.

Notification requirement as per The Posted Workers Directive

It is the responsibility of the posting company, i.e. the employer, to submit a notification to the occupational safety and health authorities before the work is begun, to assign a representative in Finland and to make the necessary information available throughout the posting.

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