Additional work and overtime

Additional work

Additional work – or extra work – refers to work that exceeds the working hours agreed on with the employee, but not the overtime limit. Additional work may occur e.g. in part-time work, when an employer asks the employee to work past their regular, agreed working hours.

Additional work takes place at the employer’s initiative. Additional work can only be commissioned with the employee’s consent, unless otherwise agreed on in the employment contract. However, the employee has the right to refuse additional work on their free days included in the shift list for a well-founded personal reason, such as studies, childcare arrangements, a trip or health-related reasons.

If an employee has a contract with variable working hours, for example, the employer is allowed to commission additional work in addition to the working hours marked in the shift list only if the employee gives them their consent to this separately for each such occasion. The consent can only be given for a fairly short period at a time.

If the employee has agreed to being on stand-by, they are alco considered to have given their consent to necessary additional work and overtime needed during the stand-by period.

An officer or office holder of a statutory corporation cannot refuse additional work if performing the work is essential to the work’s quality and due to compelling reasons.

Additional work is compensated with normal hourly pay. It can be agreed that the pay from additional work is partly or fully compensated as corresponding time off during the employee’s regular working hours or it can be transferred to the working time bank as agreed.

Overtime

Overtime is work performed in addition to regular working hours, which is performed at the employer’s initiative and with the employee’s consent. Regular working hours refer to normal daily, weekly and period-based working time defined in the employment contract.

An employee is not obligated to work overtime.

Working overtime cannot be agreed on in the employment contract.

The overtime limits are the same for both full-time and part-time employees, and they are defined in the collective agreement or the Working Time Act.
If the employee has agreed on being on stand-by, they are also considered to have given their consent to necessary overtime work needed during the stand-by period.

Maximum overtime hours

An employee’s working time, overtime included, may on average be a maximum of 48 hours a week (including all working hours) within a four-month period. The regulation regarding the absolute maximum working time is mandatory in nature, i.e. no agreement can be applied to agree otherwise.

The maximum working time is reviewed per each employee, within a certain reference period defined in advance. Instead of the four-month period, this review period can be agreed to be a full year.

Overtime in period-based work

In period-based work, there is no distinction between daily and weekly working time. In a full working time period of period-based work, any hours exceeding the regular working hours are counted as overtime. The amount of overtime is only determined after the end of the reference period.

With an reference period of three weeks, overtime is any time exceeding

114 hours and 45 minutes in the KVTES and SOTE agreements
114 hours and 45 minutes in TPTES agreement
115 hours in SOSTES agreement

Annual holiday and mid-week holidays lower the overtime limit.

Overtime in general working time

Daily overtime is generated when working time exceeds eight hours per day or a longer shift planned and included in the shift list. The maximum length of shifts varies depending on the collective agreements.

Weekly overtime is generated when the working hours exceed the regular weekly working time. The regular weekly working time is 38 h and 15 min in most collective agreements. However, if an reference period longer than one week is applied, the regular weekly working time usually varies.

Overtime compensation

A separate compensation is paid for overtime, i.e. it is not paid on hour-per-hour basis. The collective agreements have more specific information on overtime compensation.

It can be agreed that the pay from overtime is partly or fully compensated as corresponding time off during the employee’s regular working hours. If overtime is compensated as corresponding time off, the length of the free time will be calculated by applying the same increase rate as to monetary compensation. The amount of time off given as compensation for overtime, as well as its timing, must be recorded to the shift list. The overtime compensation can also be transferred to the working time bank with a separate agreement.

Accepting overtime compensation as monetary compensation is recommended, as this way the overtime is also reflected in the employee’s future pension and the earnings-related benefits and allowances, such as sickness allowance and earnings-related unemployment allowance.