The Obligations of Contractor Concerning Posted Workers

A posted worker is a person who normally carries out his or her work in a State other than Finland and whom an employer undertaking that is established and performing activities in another State posts to Finland for a limited period to perform temporary work. The posting company shall notify the occupational safety and health authority (i.e. the Regional State Administrative Agency) about the posting of workers to Finland. The contractor in Finland must always verify that the posting undertaking has taken correct measures to notify the authorities.

The Act on Posting Workers requires that the contractor must ensure by contracts or other means of use that the contracting party of the undertaking posting workers has a representative in Finland whilst an employer acts as a posted worker. In practice, such requirement can be fulfilled by having a clause requiring a representative in the contract or ensuring via email that the posting undertaking is aware of its obligations regarding the requirement. A representative is not needed if the posting of worker last for less than ten days. When calculating the time as posted worker, the ongoing time period as posted worker as well as time period(s) as posted worker in the four previous months are accounted for.

If the occupational safety and health authority is unable to reach the undertaking’s representative, it is the contractor’s responsibility to, at the request of the occupational safety and health authority, request information from the posting undertaking on when and how the representative can be reached, and to provide this information to the occupational safety and health authority. If the posting company does not comply with the request for information, the contractor should present a report of the measures it has taken to ascertain the representative's availability to the occupational safety and health authority.

In the case of temporary agency workers, the contractor must provide the posting undertaking the information that the posting undertaking needs to fulfill its obligations as an employer. Such information consists of i.e. working hours, periods of rest, duration of duty assignments.

In construction sector work an additional obligation is set to the developer/main contractor to request the posting undertaking to provide a statement of paid salary to the employee, if the posted worker declares to the developer/main contractor that he/she has not been paid the minimum wage in accordance with the law. The developer or main contractor must, upon receipt, immediately provide it to the posted worker, and if the posted worker requests, also to the occupational safety and health authority. The request for clarification and the report must be maintained for two years after the working ends.