Background information

As a response to the first wave of COVID-19 in Spring 2020, the Government ordered restaurants, cafés, and bars to be closed to customers. Meals could be only sold out to customers.

This had a significant impact on the Finnish restaurant industry and many employers had to either temporarily or permanently dismiss employees. Simultaneously, the pressure in grocery stores increased as people were no longer eating out. Many grocery stores experienced sudden labour shortages.

HOK-Elanto, a Finnish cooperative active in the restaurant and retail trade sectors was thus faced with two conflicting problems: on one hand, the restaurants part of the cooperative could no longer offer work for the employees and on the other hand, many grocery stores were understaffed as a result of the rapid increase in demand. To meet the needs of the companies part of HOK-Elanto, the cooperative transferred 800 employees from restaurants to grocery stores.

Content of measure

HOK-Elanto, a large Finnish cooperative operating mainly in the restaurant sector and retail sale, transferred employees from restaurants to grocery stores for the first time in March 2020. The first transfer happened rapidly: in less than two days 800 employees had been transferred.

Since then, many employees have been moving between restaurants and grocery stores. There is no set end date for the transfers. Unlike many other employers in the restaurant sector, the transfers have made it possible for the company to avoid temporarily lay-offs and dismissals. In comparison to a temporarily lay-off, the transfer has been beneficial for employees as they continue to receive full salary instead of receiving unemployment benefits.

Use of measure

The transfer applied to 800 HOK-Elanto employees. In 2021, it was estimated by the chief shop steward of the restaurants that approximately one hundred of the transferred employees wanted to stay working in the retail sector, where the shift work allowances are better and employees had better control pf working time. Many former part-time employees had found full-time work in the retail sector.

Contents

• Work organisation

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Applies to all workers	Sector specific set of companies	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
Company / Companies	Companies

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Company level

Involvement

No information available.

Views and reactions

The chief shop steward of the restaurants considers it great that employees from restaurants could be quickly transferred to stores in of the same company group, as this meant nobody had to be laid-off. This had however not been friction-free as the job is vastly different. However, with approximately 100 of the 800 transferred employees wanting to stay in retail rather than return to restaurants, the labour shortage in the restaurant sector grows deeper. The service sector union PAM argues that wages in the restaurant sector lag behind the general wage development.

Sectors and occupations

This case is not occupation-specific.

Sources

• 18 March 2020: HOK-Elanto closes its restaurant, employees transferred to grocery stores: “Sales have collapsed” (www.hs.fi)
• 21 May 2021: Blue-collar workers could not escape by working remotely - women in particular feared falling ill and losing their jobs[Duunarit eivät päässeet koronaa pakoon etätöihin – etenkin naiset pelkäsivät sairastumista ja työpaikan menetystä] (yle.fi)