Ombudsman for Equality

Other legal relationships comparable to employment

The revised legislation defines the concept of employees more widely. As of 1 June 2005, the provisions governing employees under the Finnish Equality Act are also applied as appropriate to people ‘ working in some other legal relationship that is treated as an employment relationship’.

This refers to forms of work that are similar to employment contracts in the private and public sector and that involve working in similar conditions to those associated with employment contracts but that are nevertheless not covered by the Finnish Employment Contracts Act or other employment legislation. Examples of people in this kind of work include self-employed labourers and entrepreneurs, freelance workers, trainees and carers. This type of work is normally carried out under a contract to provide services for a fee over a certain period of time.

The extended definition of employees still does not cover all work that is not governed by an employment contract. In order for a legal relationship to be comparable to employment, it must involve working in similar conditions to those associated with employment contracts and be based on a personal commitment to provide services to someone else even if no actual contract exists.

The condition regarding self-employed labourers and entrepreneurs is that they must mainly sell their own expertise. These kinds of people can be classified as entrepreneurs from the perspective of employment and social legislation (in terms of unemployment benefits and pensions, for example), but their business must not involve actual entrepreneurial risks and they must not employ staff. Their working conditions are the same as those of the clients’ in-house staff, although they are exempt from the clients’ managerial prerogative. The work does not have to be carried out in the clients’ premises and using the clients’ tools. In terms of whether a self-employed person is regarded as an employee, it is not the structure of the business (sole trader/limited company) that is important but the nature.

Relationships between two individual traders are usually exempt. Other exemptions include activities that are more like a private hobby and other unpaid voluntary action, as well as any work where the aim is not to generate income, such as community initiatives and work governed by family law. The prohibition of discrimination governed by Section 7 of the Finnish Equality Act and the right to claim compensation on the basis of violations of the same nevertheless also apply to work of this kind.