Civil servants and contract employees are granted sick leave if they are prevented from carrying out their duties due to verifiable illness, defect of injury.
Civil servants can be paid their full salary for a maximum of 60 days sick leave in each calendar year. After this their salary will decrease to 75 %. After 180 days of consequent sick leave, the salary will decrease to 60 %. Payment of the salary of a civil servant is not restricted to any maximum period.
Contract employees are paid their full salary in general for at least 21 days for each case of illness. The salary may be paid for a longer time if the employment contract has lasted at least one year.
Full salary is paid for 90 days for each case of absence from work due to an industrial accident of occupational disease.
The key forms of family leave are maternity, special maternity, paternity, parental, child care, partial child care and temporary child care leaves.
A civil servant or employee shall be entitled to release from work for the period of maternity benefit referred to in the Sickness Insurance Act (Sairausvakuutuslaki). The maximum period of eligibility for maternity benefit under the Sickness Insurance Act is 105 ordinary weekdays. Entitlement to maternity benefit begins no sooner than 50 and no later than 30 ordinary weekdays immediately before the estimated date of confinement. If pregnancy ends sooner than 30 ordinary weekdays before the estimated date of confinement, then entitlement to maternity benefit begins on the first day following the end of pregnancy and ends when benefit has been paid for 105 ordinary weekdays. The mother is entitled to salary during the first 72 ordinary weekdays of the leave. For the rest of the leave the mother is entitled to an allowance regulated in the Sickness Insurance Act.
A civil servant or employee shall also be entitled to release from work for the periods of parental and paternity leave and special maternity leave. No salary shall be paid for these periods, except for the first six ordinary weekdays of the paternity leave. Instead, the civil servant or employee is entitled to specific allowances according to the Sickness Insurance Act.
Parental allowance is paid for 158 ordinary weekdays beginning immediately after the eligibility period for maternity benefit ends, unless some factor such as a change in the “paternity month” or premature confinement makes other arrangements necessary. Parents may share the period of eligibility for parental allowance so that each parent takes up to two periods of parental allowance, each of not less than 12 ordinary weekdays.
According to the Sickness Insurance Act, the paternity allowance is payable for no more than a total of 18 ordinary weekdays during the period of eligibility for maternity and parental allowance. Paternity leave may be divided into no more than four continuous periods.
A father who has received parental allowance or partial parental allowance continuously for not less than the last 12 ordinary weekdays of the period of eligibility for parental allowance is also entitled to one continuous period of paternity allowance of 1-24 ordinary weekdays (known as the "paternity month").
Special maternity leave may be granted in cases when the work or working conditions are considered to involve an irremovable risk to foetal development or pregnancy due to some chemical substance, radiation or infectious disease.
A civil servant or employee shall be entitled to unpaid leave to care for his or her own child, or for another child living permanently in the same household, until the child is three years old. The right of an adoptive parent to child care leave shall nevertheless continue until two years have elapsed from the time of adoption, but not beyond the date on which the child begins attending school.
Child care leave may be taken in no more than two periods of not less than one month unless the employer and the civil servant or employee agree on a larger number or shorter duration of child care leave periods. Only one parent or guardian may take child care leave on any given occasion. The other parent or guardian may nevertheless take one period of child care leave during maternity or parental leave.
A civil servant or an employee may be granted partial child care leave to care for his or her child or for another child living permanently in his or her household until the end of the second school year of a child in basic education. Both parents or guardians of a child may take partial child care leave during the same period, but not at the same time. Working time during the partial child care leave is usually shortened to six hours per working day, but other working time arrangements may also be used. The employer and the civil servant or employee shall agree on child care leave and on the associated detailed arrangements in the manner that they deem fit.
A civil servant or employee is entitled to temporary child care leave for not more than four days at a time in the event of any sudden illness of his or her child who is under ten years of age, or who is handicapped or chronically ill, or of another such child living permanently in his or her home, in order to care for the child or to arrange such care. The parents or guardians entitled to temporary child care leave may take such leave during the same period, but not at the same time. The salary is paid for maximum four days of absence on the condition that the absence was essential in order to care for the child or to arrange such care and that both parents are gainfully employed or that the person concerned is a single parent, and that the child’s illness is certified in a manner corresponding to the certification required for illness of the public servant or employee.
Ministry of Finance P.O BOX 28 FIN-00023 GOVERNMENT Tel. +358 295 16001 E-mail: valtiovarainministerio@vm.fi