Trade unions defend genuine possibility for alternation leave

Job alternation leave is an arrangement whereby an employee and employer come to an agreement allowing the employee to take leave for an agreed time of between 90 and 359 days. The employee then gets an allowance that is 70–80 per cent of his/her estimated unemployment benefit.

The employer undertakes to hire a registered unemployed jobseeker for the duration of the employee’s absence. To be entitled to the allowance the employee must have worked for at least ten years, including a minimum of 13 months with the same employer.

The debate over whether to tighten the rules on alternation leave intensified last autumn. And then a working group made up of government officials and employer and trade union confederations was set up. Eventually, they agreed that the existing demand for a ten years working history should be extended to 17 years.

No other changes to the rules were made, though there were demands to cut the level of compensation and guarantee the alternation leave only for specific purposes like studying.

New round of negotiations started

As things now stand there are no restrictions in terms of duration of unemployment placed on jobseekers when they apply for this replacement work. But now the Government wants to introduce a minimum unemployment period of three months.

This has led to a new round of negotiations in the same working group when it had already been thought that a consensus had been reached.

Break helps to manage in the work

The trade union confederations oppose any further watering down of the system. The possibility or opportunity to avail of leave is very important for employees, the confederations stress.

Joonas Rahkola, an economist at the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK points out that the demand of three months unemployment would radically cut the use of leave especially in the health sector. "In this sector it is difficult to find substitutes who have been unemployed for three months", he says.

The number of people availing of alternation leave totals some 20,000 annually. It has been especially popular among women working in the health and education sectors. The system is, however, widely used among people in various professions.

Heikki Jokinen