Family Leaves in General

The objective of family leaves is to offer parents the opportunity to care for their child. The employee has, in accordance with the Employment Contracts Act, the right to take leave from work during the time for which they are, in accordance with the Health Insurance Act, entitled to receive a pregnancy, special pregnancy or parental allowance.

According to the Employment Contracts Act, the employer is not under the obligation to pay the employee salary for the duration of family leave. It depends on the provisions of the collective agreement whether the employee has the right to receive salary and for which duration during family leave. If there is no generally applicable collective agreement in the business sector and the employer is not unionized (in which case the collective agreement in the business sector is applied), there is no obligation to pay salary. Nevertheless, many employers pay salary for family leave based on their own practices, see [The Employer’s Obligation to Pay Salary during Family Leaves]⁠.

The employer must be notified of the family leave no later than two months prior to the intended starting date of the leave. If notifying two months in advance is not possible due to the spouse’s return to work and the consequent need for child-care arrangements, the leave may take place one month after the notice provided that it does not cause serious inconvenience to production or service operations of the workplace.

Any changes to the date and duration of family leave must be notified at least a month before the change takes effect. The change is only possible on justifiable grounds, for example due to illness of a child or parent or a divorce. If the child is born prematurely, the parent is naturally entitled to take parental leave at an earlier date without giving a month’s notice.

The duration of family leaves in Finnish legislation is defined in working days, including Saturdays but excluding Sundays and holidays.

The employer is not allowed to dismiss the employee because of pregnancy or because the employee exercises their right to family leave. The employer is entitled to dismiss the employee on family leave on financial or production-related grounds only if the employer’s business activities cease completely. However, the employer may terminate the employee’s employment contract for a reason attributable to the employee’s person also during family leaves, See [Protection against Termination in the Case of an Employee Who Is Pregnant or on Family Leave]⁠.

The employer of a female employee has the right to a lump sum compensation of 2500 euros for the costs caused by family leaves. The compensation is paid to the employer if the employment contract has been concluded for at least a year, the employment relationship has lasted at least 3 months and the working hours have been agreed to be at least 80% of the working hours of a full-time employee in that line of work. Additionally, it is required that the employee is paid pregnancy allowance or parental allowance of an adoptive parent, and that the employer has, based on the employment contract or the collective agreement, an obligation to pay salary for at least one month of the duration of the pregnancy or adoptive parent’s parental leave.

The employee returning from family leave has the right to return primarily to their previous position. If that is not possible, the employer must offer the employee work of corresponding nature. When assessing the correspondence between the employee’s previous work and the work offered, attention is paid not only to the contents of the employee’s previous position, but also to the employee’s education and experience. If there is no corresponding work available, the employer must offer the employee other work which is in accordance with the employee’s employment contract.