The ways of working have changed over time. Although permanent, full-time jobs are still the most common work form in Finland, working life no longer necessary involves sitting at your work station for 40 hours a week. Working life is now more flexible and an increasing number of employers provide an opportunity to work remotely. Work is also frequently performed as entrepreneurs.
If you are not sure whether you are dealing with an employment relationship or self-employment, contact your trade union to find out. The form of work will essentially affect the work-related rights and obligations.
Contract work
As an agency contract worker, you sign a work contract with the company hiring labour. The contract work agency can transfer you with your consent to another workplace, i.e. the user company, whereby the user company will take on the management and supervision rights. Also, duties that immediately relate to performing the work and the arrangements thereof, as prescribed to the employer by law, are transferred to the user company. A user company e.g. gives agency contract workers inroduction training to their job and manages and supervises the work performance.
The contract work agency pays the salary and takes care of granting annual leave. The salary is paid according to the collective labour agreement binding to the contract work agency. If the contract work agency is not bound by a collective labour agreement, they have to pay the salary according to the collective labour agreement that is applied to the user company. When the work ends, the contract work agency will give the employee references on request. Also contract work requires legal grounds for a fixed-term work contract. The work ending time or an estimate thereof must be included in the work contract. The same regulations are applied to contract work as to other employments.
An agency contract worker can apply for the vacancies opening up in the user company. The employer to be entered into the CV is the contract work agency, but it is important to remember to record those duties you did in the user company as duties within that employment.
Recruitment in the customer company
As an agency contract worker you may well make such a good impression that the user company will want to hire you for a permanent employment. The commission agreement between the user company and the contract work agency defines the conditions under which the user company can hire the employee as their own employee.
Platform work
Platform work means that you accept assignments through an electric platform. Platform work is common e.g. in food deliveries.
There have been legal and political discussions in many countries on whether platform workers should be considered wage-earners. In Finland their current status is entrepreneur, although they lack the determination over their work that is specific to entrepreneurs, such as deciding on working hours and pricing.
Gig work
The employer can hire you to do a short-term gig job or project. Gig work is a fixed-term employment, even if the duration of the work was short and the employer did not define the place for performing the work. It is recommended to sign a work contract for gig work, too.