The good, the bad and the ugly of paid vacation in Finland

A summary of the oddities of earning and using paid vacation in Finland that took me years to understand.

The good

On paper, Finns eventually earn the right to 4 or 5 weeks of paid vacation every year. Additionally, albeit not prescribed by law, many collective agreements in Finland entitle workers to an extra Holiday/Vacation bonus paid out every year in the fall (for those that are still around by then) of half yearly vacation, thus around 2 or 2.5 weeks of salary. Given a friendly employer that grants you to take 2 weeks of unpaid vacation during the year, this essentially means that it is possible to take up to 7 weeks of vacation while still maintaining your ordinary monthly salary.

Additionally, when Finns end an employment, there will be earned/accrued vacation days “in the bank”, which are often paid out in cash (however, the employer may dictate that the accrued vacation days be used before the employment ends).

The bad

Finns are not entitled to take ANY (neither paid nor unpaid) leave before April 1st have passed during the employment. This means that someone that starts a new job on April 2nd will “enjoy” a whole year without any right to be away from work except on weekends and public holidays.

After the first April 1st until the next April 1st, the employee has the right to use as many vacation days as was earned before the first April 1st. The amount of vacation earned amounts to 4 weeks per year (so working half a year before the first April 1st entitles the worker to 2 weeks of paid vacation during the forthcoming 12 months).

Also, the right to 5 weeks of vacation can take years to earn. Only when April 1st have passed THREE TIMES during the employment will the employee have the right to 5 weeks of paid vacation.

The ugly

In the end, the system highly disadvantages those that change employers, since it results in lost holiday bonus (approximately 2 weeks of salary) and no legal entitlement to taking vacation AT ALL until April 1st have passed during their new employment (see above).

Also, as a foreigner, finding the above information is practically impossible amongst official sources. I have personally searched wide and far in both Swedish and English government resources without being able to find out how vacation is dealt with in practice. Only through the stories from Finnish friends and through some discussion forums online are these aspects revealed.

In practice, this means that International companies setting up shop in Finland are seldom aware of the intricacies of the Finnish vacation system which often causes complications or disadvantages for their Finnish employees.

The ugliness is exacerbated by the fact that the concept of “work days” in the law includes Saturdays, which leads to confusion for anyone that is accustomed to a 5-day work week (eg when it says 30 days of vacation, it actually means 5 weeks of vacation rather than 6 weeks).

What Finns do to work around the system

Finns that are aware of how the system works will be sure to negotiate exceptions to the above in their own employment contracts. It is common to negotiate that you on day 1 of your employment will have a couple of weeks of already accrued/earned paid vacation, so that it is possible to enjoy a vacation break during the first years without taking unpaid leave. Additionally, they can negotiate for the right to take unpaid leave during the first years.

Comparison with Sweden

Swedes have a similar system, with some key differences:

• The earning rate is 5 weeks of vacation during the first years instead of 4 weeks
• There is no praxis of a holiday/vacation bonus of around 2 weeks salary paid out every year in the fall
• There is a well established concept of “Advance vacation” that many Swedish employers offer (albeit not required by law), which allows employers to take paid vacation already during their first year (with the caveat that they may need to pay some vacation time back if they take more vacation than they earned during the first year and then quit or get laid off).

Credits

My (Finnish) spouse painstakingly explained these aspects to me about a thousand times before I started to understand… slowly… all the oddities. Thank you for your patience!

This short summary of the difference between holiday bonus, pay and compensation was also helpful.