What is the Finnish job trial period length by law?

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madsum
Posts: 66
Joined: Fri May 07, 2010 3:25 pm

What is the Finnish job trial period length by law?

Post by madsum » Tue Jul 10, 2018 5:32 pm

Hi,

I am a software engineer. Recently I decided to switch my job to a new company for the higher salary. I was offered a new job. But the hiring manager is saying that their company has a kind of undefined time of trial period. It could even take more than a year before they offer a permanent position. So I told him that there must be some Finnish law about job tail period duration. It can't be more than 5 - 6 months or some fixed duration.

But he said there is no such law. It depends on the company. There is no government law. I have no knowledge of Finnish law. So I couldn't argue at all. This is very surprising for me. Please share your thought about it. If you have any web link, please share it with me. Thanks in advance!



What is the Finnish job trial period length by law?

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Beep_Boop
Posts: 2087
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2010 8:29 pm
Location: Niflheim, Suomi

Re: What is the Finnish job trial period length by law?

Post by Beep_Boop » Tue Jul 10, 2018 6:14 pm

For your field, maximum trial period is 6 months. However, that doesn't require companies to offer permanent positions after those 6 months. It's up to agreement between you and the employer to decide on fixed-term employment vs. permanent employment. So your trial period cannot exceed the maximum 6 months, but they can still keep you on a fixed-term contract after that for as long as they want.

It's all here http://tietoala.fi/rauta/wp-content/upl ... 18_web.pdf

So, again, legally, they don't have any obligation to offer you a permanent position after 4 months, 6 months, 1 year, or even 5 years. Don't use the law to pressure them for that since there's no such law. What you need to use is leverage with your skills and value. If that doesn't suit you, you can tell them that you're not able to accept such offer and move on.
Every case is unique. You can't measure the result of your application based on arbitrary anecdotes online.

betelgeuse
Posts: 4353
Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2013 1:24 am

Re: What is the Finnish job trial period length by law?

Post by betelgeuse » Tue Jul 10, 2018 10:14 pm

Beep_Boop wrote:
Tue Jul 10, 2018 6:14 pm
For your field, maximum trial period is 6 months. However, that doesn't require companies to offer permanent positions after those 6 months. It's up to agreement between you and the employer to decide on fixed-term employment vs. permanent employment. So your trial period cannot exceed the maximum 6 months, but they can still keep you on a fixed-term contract after that for as long as they want.
You can't make a fixed term contract at will.
Section 3 (1224/2010). Form and duration of employment contract
An employment contract may be oral, written or electronic.

An employment contract is valid indefinitely unless it has, for a justified reason, been made for a specific fixed term. Contracts made for a fixed term on the employer's initiative without a justified reason shall be considered valid indefinitely.

It is prohibited to use consecutive fixed-term contracts when the amount or total duration of fixed-term contracts or the totality of such contracts indicates a permanent need of labour.
https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/kaannokse ... 010055.pdf

FinnGuyHelsinki
Posts: 1439
Joined: Sun Nov 08, 2009 8:52 pm

Re: What is the Finnish job trial period length by law?

Post by FinnGuyHelsinki » Wed Jul 11, 2018 7:34 am

If it is a small company, I'd consider carefully. A trial period is business as usual, but an "indefinite" one might be an indication of how they treat their employees in general, or that they really don't know whether they can/will hire you later on even if you performed. In a larger one, it could be just an "opinion" of one manager, easily overruled by the HR department, should push come to shove.


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