The legal protection of Loimu members has been renewed

The legal protection benefit shall cover the costs of the legal proceedings of a member if, despite the efforts made in the negotiation, a dispute relating to the employment or service relationship of the member needs to be brought before a court.

The legal protection benefit is one of the key member benefits offered by the trade union, as such an advantage is not available anywhere else. Before 1 January 2023, the legal protection benefit of Loimu members was covered by a legal expenses insurance purchased from an insurance company.

• We ended up building our own legal protection benefit offered to the Loimu members by the union, because the maximum compensation amount of EUR 17,000 from the previous legal expenses insurance was significantly behind the cost level of legal proceedings. The litigation costs for the district court stage are on averageEUR 40,000, and the costs of cases proceeding to the Court of Appeal are estimated to be as high as EUR 50,000, says Arja Varis, Loimu’s Advocacy Director.

Significant improvements in the level of legal protection

With the new legal protection benefit, the level of legal protection and the amount of cost sharing will be significantly improved from the member’s point of view. The member’s legal costs can be covered with this benefit by EUR 10,000–35,000 and the deductible for legal costs is 0–30%. The amount of compensation and the deductible depend on how long you have been a continuous member. The longer the membership has lasted, the lower the deductible and the higher the compensation for expenses.

The legal protection benefit starts to accrue immediately upon joining the membership, also for student members. Loimu’s memberships are very long-lasting, and 36 per cent of the actual members have been members of Loimu for over 21 years. With the gradation of the legal protection benefit, we want to take into account those who have been members for a long time.

The terms and conditions of the new legal protection benefit mainly correspond to the terms and conditions of the old legal expenses insurance.
– We made a few significant improvements to the terms for members. For example, a new legal protection benefit may also compensate for the criminal law court fees related to the employment or service relationship. They were not covered by the previous legal expenses insurance, Varis says.

Disputes are primarily resolved by negotiation

The members of Loimu have had only a few cases compensated with legal expenses insurance in a year. – The small number of cases that have ended up in court is explained by the fact that the primary means of resolving disputes is negotiation, and thus the majority of disputes are settled without going to court, Varis says.

In negotiations between the member and the employer, the member is assisted or represented by the negotiation director of the Loimu trusteeship team. If no resolution is reached in the negotiations, the chances of the dispute succeeding in court will be assessed together with a law firm specialising in labour law. If it is decided to take the matter to court, the member’s case will be handled by a lawyer in a law firm specialising in labour law.

More detailed information about the legal protection benefit on our website.