Pursuant to the Working Hours Act, employees’ regular working hours must not, as a rule, exceed eight hours in each 24-hour period or 40 hours per week. The regular weekly working hours of an employee can also be arranged in such a way that they average 40 hours over a period of no more than 52 weeks. The rule on daily working hours can be deviated from by national collective agreements.

If the nature of an employee’s work requires them to mostly work outside their normal daily working hours, occupational safety and health authorities can waive the rules on regular working hours and daily rest periods.

Application

Derogation permit for work performed occasionally can be sought from the Division of Occupational Safety and Health of the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southwestern Finland. Contact information.

If you submit the application via e-mail, it is recommended that you use the secure connection of the regional state administrative agency. Use the encrypted e-mail connection at least when sending data which contains confidential or otherwise sensitive information. The form itself is in Finnish. Secure e-mail

Form (pdf, in Finnish): Application: Derogation permit for work performed occasionally

A decision on an application can only be taken once the shop steward or an elected representative has been heard. If there is no such representative at the workplace, the occupational safety and health representative must be allowed to comment on the application. In the absence of any kind of personnel representative, each of the affected employees must be reserved an opportunity to express their view.

Extensions to derogation permit

Unless there has been a significant change in the employees’ working conditions since a permit was granted, either the employer or the shop steward or another representative of the employees within the meaning of section 36 of the Working Hours Act can decide on extensions to the derogation permit granted for a limited period. However, the parties cannot agree to extend a temporary derogation permit granted before 1 January 2020. In this case, a new request for permit must be made in order to extend the regular working hours under the derogation permit.

In situations where it is possible to extend the permit by agreement, but no contract arises, the employer may submit a new request for permit to the occupational safety and health authorities.

The permit does not restrict time use in positions of trust

Situations have arisen in workplaces in which a shop steward or an occupational safety and health representative’s right to put time aside for their work has been restricted based on permit conditions. However, the performance of the tasks in these positions of trust is not included in the working hours referred to in the Working Hours Act, so carrying out tasks in positions of trust during leisure time is not impeded by permit conditions. On the basis of the Act and the collective agreement, the employer must permit leave from work for the duration of the duties required by the position of trust, and even if compensation for loss of earnings is paid for this, it is not included in the working hours. Compensation related to the performance of duties in positions of trust is agreed upon in the collective agreement or locally.