07.06.2024 | News, SAVALnews
Our latest member survey revealed that many members believe their job falls outside the scope of the Working Time Act – even when there are no justifications for it. This type of misinformation can be harmful both from a financial and coping perspective.
Up to 14 per cent of respondents stated in our member survey that they do not fall within the scope of the Working Time Act, and we asked them to specify the justifications for that. Unfortunately, the open answers revealed that, in many cases, employers had told members that the Working Time Act is not applicable to their job, even though there were no grounds for that based on the Act itself:
The most significant false belief was that it only requires an agreement to exclude an employee from the scope of the Working Time Act.
The Working Time Act is mandatory legislation, with certain rare exceptions, which means that it is not possible to simply agree, for example, that the Working Time Act will not be applied. Such an agreement is void, regardless of whether the employee was willing to agree on such an arrangement. It is a different matter, of course, if the actual work task is such that does not fall within the scope of the Working Time Act – in this case, the matter can naturally be mentioned in the employment contract.
The same is true for total working time and fixed salary agreements – these cannot be used to circumvent the obligations of the Working Time Act. If an employee, based on their tasks, falls within the scope of the Working Time Act, the allowed maximum working time and minimum overtime compensation are determined by the Working Time Act, not by any “special agreement”.
A general false belief was also that the lack of fixed working hours means that one does not fall within the scope of the Working Time Act. Such arrangements may include flexible working hours or flexiwork, but this does not mean that their job falls outside the scope of the Act.
The absence of a working time monitoring system also does not mean that a person is excluded from the scope of the Working Time Act. Employers have a statutory obligation to monitor working time. If an employer neglects this responsibility, partially or entirely, it does not mean that the employee falls outside the scope of the Act.
For non-specified working hours and self-determination, see the subheading Working hour autonomy below.
Many use the independence of their job as grounds for being outside of the Working Time Act. The job description of experts and other senior management positions often inherently involve a considerable level of independence. For example, no one tells an expert at the start of the day or week what they should be doing or when their work on any given day will begin or end. This still does not exclude them from the scope of the Act.
Most supervisors within middle management, as well as those responsible for managerial tasks, also fall within the scope of the Act.
Some respondents considered themselves outside of the scope of the Working Time Act due to sales or travel work. If the work is mobile by nature or if the working hours are largely determined by timetables directly agreed on between the employee and customer, the work may fall outside of the scope of the Act. In this case, the work must take place entirely or nearly entirely outside the reach of the employer’s supervision. However, with modern technology, remote work or the impossibility of stamping a physical timecard alone are not considered as being beyond the reach of supervision. It must also be impossible for the employer to set working hours – in normal expert work this would be possible, even though the employer might not set such working hours in practice.
When is work excluded from the scope of the Working Time Act? Why is it important to know whether one falls within the scope of the Working Time Act? The whole article with answers to these questions can be found on ASIA website at: www.asia.fi/en/news-and-articles.
Text: Sirpa Leppäluoto, Labour Market Director at ASIA
Published on ASIA membership magazine 2/2024
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