JHL (27.09.2013 - Heikki Jokinen) In their structural reform programme the Finnish Government indicated it was prepared to change or make adjustments to the job alternation leave system. Any possible changes must be made without damaging the basic idea of the system, says JHL Chief Executive Officer Teija Asara-Laaksonen.
"It is important that job alternation leave should remain as a measure to support the managing of work and employment and also within reach of those with lower salaries", she says.
Job alternation leave is an arrangement whereby an employee and employer conclude an agreement allowing the employee to take leave for an agreed time of between 90 and 359 days. The employee will get an allowance that is 70 - 80 per cent of his/her estimated unemployment benefit.
The employer undertakes to hire a registered unemployed jobseeker for the duration of the employee’s absence. To be entitled to the allowance the employee must have been working for at least ten years, including a minimum of 13 months with the same employer.
New plans on the table
According to the information made available concerning the Government’s new plans opportunities to avail of the scheme will be made more difficult. As things now stand there are no restrictions in terms of duration of unemployment placed on jobseekers when they apply for this replacement work. But the Government is planning to introduce a minimum unemployment period of three months.
The level of allowance might also be scaled according to what the employee is doing while on leave. It might become higher for studying or doing some voluntary work than just for taking ordinary leave.
Asara-Laaksonen reminds us that the most active users of the system are low income women from the municipal sector. "If the allowance is to be cut, it will make it impossible for many to take this kind of leave."
In 2012 a total of 20,670 persons received a job alternation allowance. Some 2,900 or 14 per cent were members of JHL. The average length of leave time for a JHL member was five months and the allowance on average was 1,030 euro a month. Their average salary was 2,200 euro per month.
Making the system more difficult would cut job opportunities for young people and the unemployed, making it harder for these people to find a temporary job and to keep their professional skills alive.
The planned longer unemployment time as a precondition would be harmful. "It would make it more difficult for those working in fields suffering from labour shortages to take leave. For example in the social and welfare sector it is already difficult to get competent substitutes for shorter terms", Asara-Laaksonen says.