CMNT_TITLE

Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156) - Finland (RATIFICATION: 1983)

Other comments on C156

Observation

Direct Request

2018
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1994

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The Committee notes the observations of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), the Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff in Finland (AKAVA), the Finnish Confederation of Professionals (STTK), and the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK), integrated into the Government’s report.

Articles 1(3) and 4 of the Convention. Other members of the family. Leave entitlement. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that section 7(a) of chapter 4 of the Employment Contracts Act, which enables a person to be absent from work in order to take care of a close relative, can be used to take care of, inter alia, a sibling, cousin, domestic partner or a friend. It is based on an agreement between the employer and the worker regarding the length of absence and any other relevant arrangement. The employer must work actively, notably by assessing the various options, to allow the employee’s temporary leave and present justifications if the leave cannot be granted. Return to work before the end of the agreed period of absence must normally be agreed between the employer and the employee but, if not, the employee may discontinue the leave, for “a justifiable reason”, by informing the employer one month before the date of return to work. The Government indicates that the detailed statistics requested by the Committee are not available. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on any relevant court decisions concerning the type of justification that may have been given by employers to refuse leave under chapter 4, section 7(a), of the Employment Contracts Act, as well as information on what can be considered a “justifiable reason” for returning to work before the end of the agreed period of absence. It also requests the Government to indicate any measures taken or envisaged in order to collect statistical information on the number of men and women who have requested leave and who have been granted such leave in order to take care of persons other than dependent children.

Social Security. In reply to the Committee’s request for information on proposals made by the parental leave working group, the Government details the measures envisaged by the working group but indicates that none of these proposals were implemented. It adds, however, that the Action Plan for Gender Equality 2016–19 proposes to promote equal treatment and employment of women by equalizing the costs of family leave to employers with a one-time payment of €2,500. The Committee asks the Government to continue to provide information on any measures taken to compensate employers for costs incurred, including in the framework of the Action Plan for Gender Equality, as well as any measures taken to implement proposals made by the parental leave working group in this regard.

Flexible work arrangements. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that partial childcare leave – a system whereby, through an agreement between the employer and the worker, one can shorten daily or weekly working times – facilitates integrating family and working life. It further notes that the worker must have been employed by the same employer for a total period of at least six months during the last twelve months in order to be entitled to such leave, which can be taken until the end of the second year during which the child attends basic education (or longer in certain specific cases). Both parents, or persons having the care and custody of the child, are entitled to the partial childcare leave but not simultaneously. The Committee notes that a working group was appointed to assess how the gradual return to work of individuals receiving the child home care allowance could be promoted by combining early childhood education and care services and financial support. Based on the report of the working group, the partial childcare allowance was replaced, as from 1 January 2014, by a new flexible childcare allowance which increased the amount received by parents who work part-time and have children under the age of three. The objective was to increase the attractiveness of part-time work in relation to compensation for child home care. The Government indicates that, in practice, mothers take partial childcare leave in 80 per cent of cases after having been on parental leave and then child home care allowance and that they are the primary users of this type of leave (94 per cent) whereas remote work – another way of harmonizing work with family responsibilities, also based on an agreement between the employer and the worker – is more common for men than for women. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that the use of remote work has increased from almost zero to around a fifth of all wage earners between 1990 and 2013. It also notes the Government’s statement that the legislation and collective agreements ensure that employers can put in place various flexible working time arrangements which facilitate the integration of working and family life. The Committee asks the Government to continue to provide information on the impact of these arrangements on the possibility for workers to reconcile work and family responsibilities, including statistical information on the number of men and women using these arrangements.