Legal Assistance for employment problems

Holiday pay is statutory and is paid for the duration of your annual leave. A holiday bonus, on the other hand, is not based on law but on collective agreements or the employer’s own practice.

Since the right to a holiday bonus is not regulated by law, there are sectors and workplaces where no holiday bonus is paid. Typically, the holiday bonus amounts to 50% of the pay received during annual leave. Payment of the holiday bonus often requires that you take your annual leave and return to work afterwards.

If you fall ill before your annual leave starts, you have the right to request that your leave be postponed to a later date. In other words, illness does not reduce your annual leave days.

If you fall ill during your leave, you also have the right to request that your leave be postponed. However, in this case, the annual leave is not postponed immediately, as there is a six-day waiting period (deductible period). This waiting period applies to annual leave exceeding four weeks. The deductible days must not reduce your entitlement to four weeks of annual leave.

Annual leave is not postponed automatically. You must request the postponement without delay and provide your employer with reliable evidence of your incapacity for work (usually a medical certificate).

The Employment Contracts Act does not include any provision on a minimum wage. As a starting point, salary can therefore be agreed upon relatively freely. However, the wage must be at least customary and reasonable, although the law does not specify any exact amounts.

In many collective agreements, minimum wages have been agreed for different types of work. If your employer is obligated to comply with a collective agreement, they may not pay a salary lower than what the agreement stipulates.

It is always wise to agree clearly and carefully on the amount of salary and how it is determined in the employment contract. When starting a new job, it is a good idea to find out the general wage level in the industry and try to negotiate a salary that at least corresponds to that level. Often, work experience and completed education also influence salary.

According to the Employment Contracts Act, wages must be paid on the last day of the pay period unless otherwise agreed. When an employment relationship ends, the pay period also ends. Therefore, under the law, your final salary must be paid on the last day of your employment.

However, it is important to note that the payment date is determined as described above only if no other agreement has been made. Often, the employment contract or a collective agreement may state, for example, that the final salary will be paid on the company’s regular payday following the end of the employment relationship. Therefore, you should check this first.

If your final salary is not paid on time, you may demand waiting-time pay from your employer for the days of delay. Waiting-time pay is paid for a maximum of six days. In addition, you are entitled to late-payment interest in accordance with the Interest Act.

Yes. Even if the error was not your fault, the employer has the right to recover wages that were overpaid or paid without proper grounds. The employer may offset the overpaid amount, for example, from your next salary payment.

However, the employer’s right to make deductions is restricted under the Employment Contracts Act, and you must still be left with the protected portion of income in accordance with the Enforcement Code.

If your employer informs you that you have been overpaid, it is advisable to request a written explanation and calculation. This allows you to check whether an overpayment has actually occurred. It is also recommended to agree with your employer on a reasonable repayment schedule.

Change negotiations must be carried out when an employer is considering reducing its workforce on financial, production-related, or organisational restructuring grounds. Workforce reduction refers to dismissals, lay-offs, and reductions in working hours (part-time arrangements). Significant changes to the essential terms of an employment relationship (for example, a major change in job duties) are also considered a reduction, meaning they also require change negotiations.

The obligation to conduct change negotiations applies to employers who regularly employ at least 50 employees. Employers with 20–49 employees are required to conduct change negotiations only in situations where the employer is considering, within a 90-day period, dismissing, reducing working hours, laying off, or unilaterally changing the essential terms of employment for at least 20 employees on financial or production-related grounds.

Start by making sure you understand what change negotiations mean and how the process proceeds. Change negotiations (formerly known as co-operation negotiations) are a statutory process in which the employer and employees discuss planned changes before any decisions are made. The aim of the negotiations is to find alternatives and mitigate the impacts on staff, such as dismissals or lay-offs.

Employees are generally represented in the negotiations by a staff representative, such as a shop steward, an elected employee representative, or a co-operation representative.

If the employees have no representative at all, the employer negotiates directly with the employees. If no representative has been chosen, employees may elect a co-operation representative. If a co-operation representative is elected for a fixed term of two years, they receive enhanced protection against dismissal. A representative chosen only for a single negotiation process does not receive such protection.

During the negotiations themselves, you should be active and ask for clarifications. You have the right to receive information about the employer’s plans and the reasons behind them.

So do not hesitate to ask questions. It is useful to clarify, for example, the following:

• Why is the amount of work decreasing?
• Which tasks and duties are being reduced, and what does the employer believe is causing this?
• How has the need for savings been determined and calculated?
• How will it be decided which employees may be subject to dismissal or lay-off?
• How will the work of employees who are dismissed or laid off be reorganised?

You are also allowed—and encouraged—to present your own views and proposals for solutions. These could include suggestions for reorganising work, part-time arrangements, or other alternatives to dismissals or lay-offs.

You should also request that minutes are kept of the negotiations. The minutes should only be signed if they accurately record the course of the negotiations. Note that although the goal is to reach mutual understanding, agreement is not always achieved. It is essential that the minutes reflect the views of both parties.

It is also worth noting that the minimum negotiation periods can be adjusted in either direction. The statutory minimum periods are so short that it is generally not recommended to agree to shorter ones. Sometimes, if matters still seem unresolved, it may be beneficial for employees to propose continuing the negotiations even after the minimum period has been met.

So stay active and ask for more information. Remember that under the law, both parties must act constructively and strive to contribute to the progress of the negotiations.

The Employment Contracts Act does not specify a clear number after which an employer may no longer conclude fixed-term employment contracts consecutively on their own initiative. Under the Act, there must be a justified reason for using a fixed-term contract. A justified reason is required if the employer wishes to enter into an employment contract for a fixed term.

Questions about the legality of fixed-term contracts often arise in situations where several fixed-term contracts have been concluded one after another. In principle, it is possible that even fixed-term contracts covering several years may have the justified reason required by the Employment Contracts Act and case law. However, in such cases, the grounds for each fixed-term contract must be reviewed.

If fixed-term contracts are repeatedly concluded without a clear justification, the employment relationship may be considered to be valid indefinitely (permanent).

In certain situations, a long chain of fixed-term contracts may also be interpreted as evidence of a permanent need for labour. In that case, an open-ended employment contract should have been concluded instead of fixed-term contracts. Whether there is a permanent need for labour must be assessed on a case-by-case basis.