It’s not always easy to tell whether you are self-employed or an employee. Sometimes a contract can say that you are self-employed, but in practice you work like an employee. In this case, you would be entitled to employees’ rights.

If you are self-employed, you have the freedom to decide how and when to work, at what price and for whom. As a self-employed person, you are responsible for taking care of matters such as mandatory insurance and taxes yourself.

If a company for example assigns working hours to you and prohibits you from working for others, you may be an employee. In that case, you are entitled to employees’ rights, such as paid annual leave, paid sick leave, overtime compensation, occupational health care and accident insurance.

Take care of your rights from the start. Check the terms of your contract carefully. Claiming your rights afterwards is slow and difficult.

Read more about employees’ rights at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s website Tyosuojelu.fi or in the “As a foreign employee in Finland” guide. It is available in several languages at www.tyosuojelu.fi/work-in-finland.