Sick leave in Finland: pay, certificates and Kela

Sick leave in Finland starts with a message to your employer: you report the absence as the workplace instructions say and, if asked, give a reliable account of your incapacity for work. Under the Employment Contracts Act the employer pays sick pay until the end of the ninth working day after the day you fall ill, and after that Kela's sickness allowance can be paid for a maximum of 300 working days. The law sets no fixed number of sick days per year: what is limited is how long the pay and the allowance last.

How does sick leave work in Finland?

Sick leave (sairausloma) means absence from work because an illness or accident prevents you from doing your job.

Time off after the death of a close relative follows different rules: see bereavement leave in Finland. Solace Care's guide explains what to do when someone dies.

Do you need a doctor's certificate?

Not always. Chapter 2, section 11 of the Employment Contracts Act says that an employee must, on request, give the employer a reliable account of their incapacity for work. The Act does not list the accepted accounts or set a number of days after which a certificate is required.

Sick leave without a doctor's note therefore depends on the workplace rules and the collective agreement. They decide whether self-certification (omailmoitus) is accepted and for how long.

Kela always needs a doctor's document: a sickness allowance application requires certificate A or statement B or BC, and certificate A is as a rule enough for at most 60 working days of allowance. The guide to the sick leave certificate (sairauslomatodistus) covers what the employer can ask for.

Who pays during sick leave, and for how long?

First the employer, then Kela. Sick leave pay in Finland has a statutory minimum in the same section of the Employment Contracts Act:

• Employment has lasted at least one month: the employee is entitled to full pay for the period of incapacity until the end of the ninth working day following the day of falling ill, but at most until the right to sickness allowance under the Health Insurance Act begins.
• Employment has lasted less than one month: the employee is correspondingly entitled to 50 per cent of pay.

The law does not oblige the employer to pay salary after that, but collective agreements often extend the paid period, and an employment contract may too.

Kela's sickness allowance (sairauspäiväraha) is paid after a waiting period: the day of falling ill and the following nine working days. Kela counts Monday to Saturday as working days, apart from public holidays. The allowance is paid for a maximum of 300 working days, approximately a year.

When the employer pays salary during the absence, Kela pays the allowance to the employer, at most up to the amount of the salary paid. The employer must apply within two months of the start of the incapacity. Details are in the guide to sick pay.

What happens in a long sick leave?

A long absence brings deadlines for the employer, occupational health care and Kela.

• One month of absence: under section 10 a of the Occupational Health Care Act, the employer must notify occupational health care (työterveyshuolto) of an employee's sickness absence at the latest when the absence has lasted a month.
• Kela's checkpoints: Kela reviews the situation when sickness allowance has been paid for 30, 60, 90, 150 and 230 days.
• The 90-day statement: occupational health care must send Kela a statement on the employee's remaining work ability at the latest when sickness allowance has been paid for 90 working days. The employer looks into the possibilities for continuing at work together with the employee and occupational health care.

The month runs from the start of the absence, while Kela counts paid allowance days. The return to work is often agreed in a work ability meeting; the statements are explained in the guide to the occupational health doctor.

What does the employer learn about the illness?

The employer needs to know that you are unable to work and for how long. You do not have to explain your illness to your manager or your team. If the required certificate shows a diagnosis, the law limits who may see it.

Section 5 of the Act on the Protection of Privacy in Working Life allows the employer to process health data received from the employee when this is necessary for paying sick pay or for establishing whether there is a justified reason for the absence. Only persons the employer has named, or whose tasks it has defined, may handle the data. They may not disclose it to outsiders, and it is kept separate from other personal data.

Finnish sick leave terms in English

Looking for sairausloma in English or sairauslomatodistus in English? These are the words you meet at a Finnish workplace.

Checklist for employers

1. Write down how an absence is reported: to whom, through which channel and by when.
2. Decide which account you accept for a short absence and for how long, after checking the collective agreement.
3. Check the paid period in the collective agreement and the employment contracts.
4. If you pay salary after the waiting period, apply for Kela's sickness allowance within two months.
5. Notify occupational health care when an absence has lasted a month.
6. Name the people who handle health data, and keep certificates separate from other personnel files.

Whether appointments for illness are part of your occupational health care depends on your contract: see the services page.

Frequently asked questions