"JOB-ALTERNATION" LEAVE
| FINLAND |
| VUOROTTELUVAPAA [ALTERNERINGSLEDIGHET] "JOB-ALTERNATION" LEAVE |
Expression used in English in Finland to refer to an experimental scheme. It means that employees who have been employed full-time by the same employer for at least one year can conclude a written agreement with their employer whereby their employment relationship is suspended for a specified period and the employer undertakes to hire, for an equivalent period, an unemployed jobseeker registered with an employment office. The post for which the jobseeker is hired need not necessarily be that occupied by the employee taking the leave. The initial 1995 Job-Alternation Leave Experiment Act entered into force in 1996, with the principal objectives of boosting the employment rate and enabling those already in employment to keep their jobs. The present Act, adopted in 2002, is valid until 2008.
The period of leave is at least three months and at most a total of 359 calendar days (about a year). Employees returning from leave are entitled to be taken back into their former job or comparable work. While on such leave employees are not paid by their employer but are entitled to receive a "job-alternation" allowance (vuorottelukorvaus) from the National Pensions Institute or their unemployment benefit society. The amount of this allowance is dependent on their gross pay; at present the full allowance amounts to 70% of what their unemployment benefit entitlement would be, with no upper limit. For example, in the case of monthly earnings of 1700 euros the allowance is around 660 euros. The smallest allowance is around 300 eurosmonth. Entitlement is regulated by the provisions on the payment of unemployment benefit. See unemployment.)
Please note: the European industrial relations glossaries were compiled between 1991 and 2003 and are not updated. For current material see the European industrial relations dictionary.