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Working time rules in Finland: a guide for employers
Eight hours a day, 40 a week, 48 including overtime averaged over four months, and consent for overtime every single time. The rules, the records, and where the old overtime cap went.
Eight hours a day, 40 a week: every hour beyond that needs consent you ask for each time. Working time applies to everyone you hire from day one, and it is the area where a breach is directly punishable.
The rules come from the Working Hours Act 872/2019 (työaikalaki), in force since 1 January 2020. It was not a tidy-up: it scrapped the separate overtime cap, wrote joustotyöaika and the työaikapankki into the statute, and fixed the flexitime balance limits.
- Regular working time is eight hours a day and 40 hours a week, and the two limits apply independently (section 5(1)).
- Overtime always needs the employee’s consent given separately each time; a blanket clause in the contract never satisfies it (section 17(1)).
- Total working time — regular hours, additional work and overtime combined — cannot average more than 48 hours a week over four months (section 18(1)).
- The first two hours of daily overtime pay +50%, every hour after that pays +100%, and Sunday work adds a further +100% on top of any overtime (section 20).
- You owe at least 11 hours of rest between shifts and 35 hours once a week, and neither can be reduced by agreement to the employee’s detriment.
- Keep working-time records for at least two years past the end of the current calendar year (section 40).
What counts as regular working time?
Eight hours a day and 40 hours a week (section 5(1)). The two limits are independent, so a nine-hour day is not regular working time even in a 38-hour week.
Three routes let you average that out, and they carry different daily ceilings:
| Route | Daily ceiling | Weekly average | Over | Needs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Act’s own averaging (s. 5(2)) | 8 h | 40 h | up to 52 weeks | nothing |
| Agreement with the employee (s. 11) | 10 h | 40 h, max 48 h in any week | up to 4 months | writing, if open-ended or ≥ 2 weeks |
| Nationwide collective agreement (s. 34) | as agreed | 40 h | up to 52 weeks | a binding agreement |
The one that surprises people is the first: the year flexes, the day does not. Only a section 11 agreement buys a 10-hour day, and it costs a shorter balancing period.
If you average and are not using flexitime or a flexible-work arrangement, you must also draw up an averaging plan in advance showing regular working time week by week (section 29). It is a separate document from the shift roster, and in smaller companies it is the one that never gets written.
Period-based work has its own ceilings (section 7):
| Period | Regular hours | Cap in any one period | Across consecutive periods |
|---|---|---|---|
| Three weeks | 120 h | 128 h | 240 h over two |
| Two weeks | 80 h | 88 h | 240 h over three |
Next: check which averaging route your contracts actually use, and confirm the averaging plan for it is written down, not just assumed.
Additional work or overtime?
Overtime is work past the statutory 8/40 limits; additional work is work past a shorter agreed week but still inside them. The difference is money: overtime carries a statutory premium, additional work does not. It is confused constantly.
Both need your initiative (section 16). If someone on flexitime decides to stretch the day themselves, that is not overtime and you owe no premium.
In general working time (section 16(2)):
- Daily overtime is work exceeding eight hours a day
- Weekly overtime is work exceeding 40 hours a week without being daily overtime
- Additional work is, where under 40 hours a week is agreed, work beyond the rostered regular hours that is not overtime
Consent is where employers get caught. You must ask for overtime consent separately every time (section 17(1)). A blanket clause in the contract does not satisfy this. Consent covering a specified short period is possible only where the work cannot be organised otherwise.
Additional work is looser but not free: you can agree it once in the contract, yet the employee may still refuse it, for a justified personal reason, on a rostered day off (section 17(2)). On a variable-hours contract, consent is required every occasion (section 17(3)). Preparatory and finishing work is the standing exception, capped at five hours a week (section 17(5)).
Next: check how overtime consent is actually collected in your company. If the answer is “it’s in the contract”, that is not consent.
What must be paid?
The table below sets out what you owe for additional work, overtime and Sunday work (section 20).
| Type of work | Statutory compensation |
|---|---|
| Additional work | Pay for the agreed working time, no increment |
| Daily overtime, first 2 h | +50% |
| Daily overtime, hours 3 onwards | +100% |
| Weekly overtime | +50% |
| Period-based, first 12 h (2-week) or 18 h (3-week) | +50% |
| Period-based, hours after those | +100% |
| Sunday work | +100%, and the overtime compensation if it is also overtime |
Overtime on a Sunday is the classic payroll error. The two are not alternatives: you pay both.
You can also swap the money for time off by agreement, at the same percentages (section 21):
| Overtime worked | Time off owed | Must be given |
|---|---|---|
| 2 h at +50% | 3 h | within 6 months, unless otherwise agreed |
The hourly rate is contractual pay divided by regular working hours (section 23). You can roll overtime into a flat monthly sum in only two situations (section 38): the person’s main job is directing and supervising others, or they have a flexible-work agreement under section 13. Put it in writing and record the estimated monthly hours.
Next: check your payroll setup for anyone paid a flat monthly rate, and confirm the written agreement and estimated hours are on file.
Where did the overtime cap go?
An average of 48 hours a week over four months, counting everything (section 18(1)). If you still track a separate annual overtime allowance, you are working from a repealed act.
The old 605/1996 Act did cap overtime separately, but the cap disappeared in the 2019 reform (Act 872/2019); a transitional provision let it run only until 31 December 2020. Three consequences:
- It counts total hours, not overtime hours. Regular time, additional work and overtime are added together (tyosuojelu.fi).
- You cannot contract around it. The provision is mandatory, so no agreement lifts the ceiling.
- Only the averaging window moves. A nationwide agreement can stretch four months to six, or twelve for technical or work-organisation reasons (section 34(1)(9)). The 48-hour average never moves.
Drivers have a further hard cap of 60 hours in a calendar week. Emergency work is the one narrow escape (section 19): an unforeseen interruption, only as far as necessary, for no more than two weeks, after which you balance back inside section 18, give compensatory rest, and notify the authority in writing.
Next: find the date your current four-month balancing period closes and put it in a calendar. That is the moment the 48-hour average is tested.
What are flexitime, flexible work and the working-time account?
Flexitime needs four things in the agreement: the uninterrupted fixed working time, the daily flexitime limit and where the flexible period sits, where rest periods fall, and the maximum accrual of excesses and shortfalls. The balances cap at +60 / −20 hours at the end of each four-month monitoring period, and the flexible period itself may be no more than four hours (section 12). None of these limits can be varied by agreement with the employee; only a nationwide collective agreement can move them.
A flexible-work arrangement is not the same thing. It requires at least half the working time to be time whose placing and location the employee decides (section 13). The written agreement must cover which days work may fall on, where the weekly rest sits, any fixed working time (never between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.), and what applies once the arrangement ends.
The working-time account banks overtime, flexitime surplus and money converted to time, capped at 180 hours a year and six months’ working time in total (section 14). You introduce one in writing with a shop steward, elected representative or the personnel group, not one-to-one. Pay for regular working time, expense allowances and already-due monetary benefits may not go in. At least two weeks must be taken per calendar year, or a fifth of the accrual where more than ten weeks are saved.
Next: check whether your flexitime or working-time-account agreements list all the required elements, and confirm the current balances are inside the caps.
What records and shift roster must you keep?
You must record hours worked and compensation paid, employee by employee (section 32(1)). No aggregate option, no salary-level exemption. The records must show either:
- regular working hours, plus additional, overtime, emergency and Sunday work hours and the compensation paid, or
- all hours worked, with overtime, emergency and Sunday hours and their increments shown separately
The shift roster is separate. Every workplace needs one showing when regular working time starts and ends and when breaks fall, for at least a week, issued in writing a week before the period starts (section 30). After that you can change it only with consent or for a compelling work-organisation reason.
Keep records until the deadline for bringing an action has passed (section 40): in practice at least two years past the end of the current calendar year. Employees may request a written account of their own entries; the authority and the shop steward may demand copies of the records, the averaging plan and the roster.
One relief: in a flexible-work arrangement the employee submits their own hours each pay period and you record only that (section 32(2)).
Next: check that your records show hours and compensation for every employee, roster included — not just the ones on flexitime.
What rest periods must you give?
Rest periods come in five kinds, and none can be traded away to the employee’s detriment — which is what makes them a reliable source of inspection findings. The table below sets out the minimum for each and when it applies.
| Rest period | Minimum | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Meal break | 1 hour (½ hour if agreed) | Past six hours of uninterrupted work where presence isn’t necessary; employee may leave; not at the start or end of the day. A further break of up to ½ hour after eight hours’ work if the day runs past 10 hours. |
| Daily rest | 11 hours | In the 24 hours following the start of each shift. Reducible to nine hours in period-based work, or seven hours in flexitime or flexible work on the employee’s own initiative. |
| Compensatory rest | Owed back in full | Given with the next daily rest, within 14 days at the outside, as one unbroken stretch — never during on-call time. |
| Weekly rest | 35 hours | Every seven days, where possible with Sunday. May be averaged over 14 days if each seven-day period gets at least 24 hours. |
| Work during weekly rest | Compensated within 3 months | By shortening regular working time; money only with the employee’s consent. |
Time spent travelling is not working time unless it is at the same time a work performance (section 3(2)), though the Occupational Safety and Health Act still applies to preventing excessive strain from travel outside working hours.
Next: check your shift roster for anyone whose daily or weekly rest falls short of these minimums, before it becomes a wage claim.
What happens if you get it wrong?
A fine, and for the records specifically, a criminal offence. Breach the maximum working time, the emergency-work rules, the minimum rest periods or the shift-roster duty, wilfully or negligently, and you are sentenced to a fine for a working hours violation (section 44).
Records are treated more seriously: falsifying them or failing to keep them is punished as a working hours protection offence under Chapter 47, section 2 of the Criminal Code. So is any violation committed after an exhortation or order from the authority.
None of this bends by agreement: a clause that weakens what the Act gives an employee is void unless the Act itself allows it — these protections are mandatory in the employee’s favour (section 33).
Next: check your disciplinary and payroll process for what happens when a working-time breach is found, and who signs off the fix.
Where do smaller employers go wrong?
- Assuming overtime can be ordered unilaterally. Consent is required separately on each occasion; a contract clause does not satisfy it.
- Confusing additional work and overtime. At a 37.5-hour agreed week, the hours between 37.5 and 40 are additional work, paid at normal rate.
- Still relying on the old 138 h / 250 h overtime cap. Gone since 2020.
- Not keeping records for monthly-paid staff. Section 32(1) knows no exception based on method of payment.
- Agreeing flexitime balance limits bilaterally. Only a nationwide collective agreement can move them.
- Excluding a supervisor by job title. Section 2 needs all three conditions: no predetermined working time, no monitoring of it, the person decides their own hours, plus a listed task type. A team lead on a roster is fully inside the Act.
- Assuming the Sunday increment replaces overtime compensation. Both are paid.
- The averaging plan never gets made.
Next: check your own working-time file against this list — the averaging plan and the overtime consent record are the two most commonly missing pieces.
How does Taito.ai help with this?
Taito.ai sets up working time and attendance records for each employee — hours worked, the shift roster, and absences to the day — and keeps them maintained automatically.
Sources
- Working Hours Act 872/2019 (Finlex)
- Criminal Code 39/1889 — Chapter 47, Section 2 (Finlex)
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration — maximum working time
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration — flexitime
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration — working-time account
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration — rest periods and breaks
Finlex publishes this act in Finnish and Swedish only. There is no citable official English translation, so every rule here is paraphrased rather than quoted.
Disclaimer
Taito.ai does not provide legal, tax or accounting advice. This article is general information about the law as it stood on the date above, not advice on your situation, and it is not a substitute for it. Rates and thresholds change. Check with a qualified adviser before acting on anything here.
