Basic pay
Pay is the compensation paid by the employer for performing the work. For SuPer members, their pay is rarely based on the basic pay or job-specific pay alone. Instead, various bonuses are an essential part of the total compensation for many.
All agreement sectors of SuPer members apply some type of pay system based on the job’s level of difficulty or the degree of competence and responsibility. The collective agreements applied have a pay table or a pay group that shows at least the basic pay of employees, for example personnel working as practical nurses.
In practice, however, the basic pay or the job-specific pay may be different from the pay presented in the pay table/pay group. The pay systems of different collective agreements vary a great deal, so it is not possible to give an explicit answer as to the amount of basic pay or job-specific pay.
Other factors affecting an employee’s pay are whether they are working in the private or public sector and which collective agreement is being applied. Familiarise yourself with the collective agreement applied at your workplace.
If you have questions related to your pay, you can reach out to your workplace’s payroll services or your own union representative.
Salary and wage payment
An employee has the right to be paid for the work they have done as specified in the collective agreement. The payment must be accurate and timely.
The law states that the pay of a monthly-paid employee must be paid during the month the work is performed. The pay of an employee on hourly wages must be paid twice a month.
The payment date is usually agreed on in the employment contract. If the agreed date falls on a mid-week holiday or a weekend, the pay must be paid on the weekday preceding this. The pay must be on the employee’s bank account and available to them on the date agreed.
In the municipal sector and in wellbeing services counties, the payment date is the 16th of each month, unless otherwise agreed. Fixed-term employees can be paid on the last day of a month.
Final pay must be paid when the employment relationship ends, unless otherwise agreed in the employment contract.
The collective agreement has regulations on the payment of hour specific compensation. According to SOTE, HYVTES and KVTES, for example, hour-specific compensation must be paid by the end of the calendar month following the work shifts entitling the employee to the increments.
When a longer adjustment period is used, however, the increments can be paid by the end of the calendar month following the end of the shift list.
You can check the amount of hour-specific compensation from your own collective agreement or from Hour-specific increments
A payslip must be delivered to an employee when they are paid. The payslip must itemise the different pay components, the grounds for determining the pay, withholding tax and the amount of pension payment. It is the employee’s responsibility to ensure that they have been paid correctly.
If an employer does not submit a payslip despite the employee’s requests, an occupational safety and health inspector can put control measures in place with the employee’s consent. Negligence has been decreed as punishable in the Employment Contracts Act, and the employer can be convicted of a violation of the Employment Contracts Act.
It is the employee’s responsibility to ensure that they have been paid correctly.
If you notice an incorrect payment, please contact your supervisor and notify them of the error. If you have been paid too much, this should also be reported to your supervisor; your employer has the right to charge back the excess pay. In both cases, you should first attempt to settle the matter through negotiations.
If your employer does not give a statement on their error or pay the missing amount despite your requests, you can contact your union representative or the advocacy services of SuPer.
You are entitled to a late payment interest for your overdue pay receivables. After your employment relationship has ended, you are entitled to request a late payment interest and pay from the waiting period, if your pay is late or if the payment is incorrect.
If you do not get your pay at all, and if the employer states that the grounds for not paying your wages is, for example, you owing compensation for damages to the employer, the employer may have violated their right of set-off.
If the employer has set-off your pay, contact your union representative or the SuPer advocacy services. You can also contact the occupational safety services of the Regional State Administrative Agency. An occupational safety and health inspector will then assess whether your case requires control measures.
If you suspect that your employer is unable to pay or that they are bankrupt, contact the Uusimaa Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment without delay. It manages the pay security matters of the whole of Finland.
The pay security application must be submitted within three months of the due date of the receivable sum, i.e. your pay day. If the last day of this three-month period falls on a weekend, a mid-week holiday or a public holiday, the application can still be submitted on the following weekday. The application must be submitted at the latest on the last date of the three-month period, by the end of the business hours at 4:15 pm.
More information on pay security is available on the website of the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment: Pay security