Sick leaves 

An employee’s duty is to promptly inform the employer if illness or accident prevents work. In the workplace, there is often an agreement on who to notify about absences and how many days one can be absent due to illness without a medical certificate. A medical certificate must be presented in cases of incapacity for work if the employer demands it. As reliable proof of incapacity for work, an employer may also accept a certificate from a nurse. 

The provisions of a collective agreement and workplace practices significantly influence the type of evidence required from an employee. If the employer has reason to doubt the incapacity for work, they can appoint a doctor of their choice to examine the employee. A medical certificate is essential for the employer when sick leave extends for a long time. It is needed for the employer to receive compensation from Kela. 

There is not always a right to sick pay: An employee is not entitled to sick pay from the employer if they have intentionally caused their incapacity for work or as a result of gross negligence. For example, self-injury while intoxicated during leisure time or participation in a fight could fall under such circumstances. However, the bar for meeting the criteria of gross negligence is quite high. Additionally, there are situations where a doctor can issue a sick leave, but the employer is not obligated to pay wages. These could include absences due to cosmetic procedures, for example. 

If an employee falls ill, they are entitled to sickness pay under the law for the first ten days of illness (the day of falling ill + nine workdays). This requires that they are incapable of working due to illness or accident and, therefore, cannot perform their contractual duties. Pay is provided for workdays falling within this period. The sickness pay is the same as the employee’s regular salary. In practice, the pay continues as usual for the first ten sick days. An employee receives full sickness pay if they have been at the same workplace for at least a month when the incapacity for work began. In shorter employment relationships, the employee receives only 50% of their regular salary during sickness. 

In several collective agreements, there are provisions for entitlement to sickness pay longer than the statutory duration, requiring the employer to pay the sick employee for a period longer than ten days. In some collective agreements, this period can even be up to three months. The length of paid sick leave must always be checked separately from the industry-specific collective agreement. In a few rare collective agreements, there is also a specified waiting day, where no sickness pay is provided for the first full day of sick leave. 

The first ten days of an illness is considered a waiting period for sickness allowance, during which neither the employee nor the employer receives state benefits. After this, if the sickness leave continues, the employee transitions from sickness pay to receiving sickness allowance, which is paid by Kela (The Social Insurance Institution of Finland). 

Kela assists with the costs of sickness pay lasting over ten days or pays a daily allowance to the person who is ill. If the employer is required to pay sickness pay after the waiting period according to a collective agreement or employment contract, Kela will directly pay the sickness allowance for this period to the employer. If the sickness pay provided by the employer is lower than the sickness allowance offered by Kela, Kela will pay the difference to the employee. 

Partial sickness allowance is a voluntary arrangement agreed upon between the employee and the employer aimed at supporting the return to work for someone who has been ill. After a continuous period of at least 60 days of illness, an employee or self-employed individual has the opportunity to return to their own work part-time. In this case, they receive 40-60% of their salary from their employer and, in addition, partial sickness allowance from Kela. The return to work must not jeopardize the individual’s health or recovery. Utilizing partial sickness allowance always requires a medical assessment of the employee’s or self-employed individual’s health. For more information on partial sickness allowance, you can visit Kela’s website. 

If a child under the age of 10 falls ill, the employee can, based on the Employment Contracts Act, take up to 4 working days of temporary care leave. During this time, there is no statutory right to receive pay or daily allowance from Kela. 

Many collective agreements specify paid leave for a child’s illness. Typically, the paid leave period is three or four days. Therefore, it is advisable to check the collective agreement specific to your industry. 

A reliable certificate must be provided for the child’s illness. If obtaining a medical certificate is difficult, it may be worth discussing with the employer whether a self-declaration or a certificate from a nurse would suffice. 

Sometimes falling ill can coincide with another absence. Typical situations include annual leave, temporary layoff, strike, official leave, etc. There are specific rules for the transfer of annual leave, but other situations are generally resolved based on the so-called time-priority principle. This principle is a commonly followed and established rule in labor law used to determine the priority between intersecting reasons and events (such as reasons for absence), like an employee’s right to salary when two different reasons for absence overlap. 

The reason for the absence and its impact are assessed based on the reason that started first. For instance, if a strike begins during an employee’s paid sick leave, the payment of salary is not interrupted. If the reason for the first absence ceases while the second reason continues, the absence is assessed based on the second reason after the first reason ends. For example, if an employee is sick when the notice of temporary layoff is given and remains unable to work when the layoff starts, the absence is considered due to illness, and the employee will receive sick pay. However, if the employee falls ill after the start of the temporary layoff, the reason for the absence is the layoff, and the employer will not pay sick pay for the overlapping period of sickness and layoff.