Paid overtime increases by 6%

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In Finland, 6% more paid overtime was performed in 1997 than in the previous year. In addition, a remarkable proportion of higher-level white-collar workers in the private sector do overtime without compensation.

According to Statistics Finland, compensated overtime work increased by 6% in 1997 compared with the previous year (Labour force statistics 1997). Overtime work was performed mostly in the public and other service sectors and in industry.

it is the members of the Confederation of Unions for Academic Professionals in Finland (Akateemisten Toimihenkilöiden Keskusjärjestö,AKAVA) who work the longer weeks. Some 70% of those who responded to an AKAVA membership survey in October 1997 reported overtime work. Over half of these did not receive any overtime compensation either in money or in time off.

In October 1997, the Finnish Association of Graduate Engineers (Tekniikan Akateemisten Liitto, TEK) - an AKAVA affiliate - conducted a survey in which 82% of its members mentioned working a longer week than was written in their contracts. Only 16% of them said that they received compensation for their extra work. This calculation includes only those whose normal working week according to their employment contract is of the most common length - ie 37.5 or 40 hours per week.

According to the TEK lawyer, Ralf Forsen, the number of employees contacting the union concerning overtime has increased clearly during the last few years. "We often get complaints about overtime matters. The problem is that the union is requested to intervene, but the employee is not prepared to take legal action in his or her own name. The union cannot do anything in an individual case, because we are not a party to the dispute," says Mr Forsen. "No one wants to be branded as a rebel. Some are afraid to get fired, even if it would not be possible while a dispute is being processed. But there exist some other ways to make employees' work more difficult" (quoted in the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, 11 July 1998).

The labour market director at the Confederation of Finnish Industry and Employers (Teollisuuden ja Työnantajain Keskusliitto, TT), Seppo Riski, is critical about the surveys conducted by the unions: "The people have merely estimated their own overtime in the survey. They may have stayed at work without letting the employer know. Higher-level white-collar workers are often expected to take responsibility for the work as a whole, in which case they can choose their own working time themselves to some extent."

Mr Riski states that if someone has suffered injustice, he or she should discuss it with the employer - "this is not at all a collective matter"(Helsingin Sanomat, 11 July 1998).