Eurofound's EU PolicyWatch collates information on the responses of government and social partners to the COVID-19 crisis, the war in Ukraine, rising inflation, as well as gathering examples of company practices aimed at mitigating the social and economic impacts.
Factsheet for measure FI-2020-18/558 – measures in Finland
Country | Finland , applies nationwide |
Time period | Temporary, 01 May 2020 – 31 December 2020 |
Context | COVID-19 |
Type | Legislations or other statutory regulations |
Category |
Supporting businesses to stay afloat
– Direct subsidies (full or partial) |
Author | Amanda Kinnunen (Oxford Research) and Eurofound |
Measure added | 13 April 2020 (updated 14 July 2020) |
In accordance with Employees' Pensions Act (Työtekijän eläkelaki) (395/2006), both employer and employee contribute to employees' pension. The basic percentage of employers contribution in 2020 is 25.3% of employees salary. Company size and other factors may however increase or decrease this percentage. In order to ease the pressure the outbreak of COVID-19 puts on employers and financial stability, amendment to the Employees Pensions Act and other relevant acts that temporarily decrease the employers contribution by 2.6%, have been passed.
This measure applies to all private sector employers.
The Government estimates that temporary deductions to employers' pension contribution will amount to €1.05 billion.
In order to cover for deductions made in 2020 and increase the buffer of the work pension system that is used for financing these temporary deductions, employers' pension contribution will be increased by 0.4 between 2022 and 2025. The monetary support provided with the help of this measure is thus temporary.
There is no estimate regarding how much this temporary deduction will affect the contribution of an individual employer to its employees pensions.
Employees' contribution to pension will not be affected by this measure.
No information up to this date.
Workers | Businesses | Citizens |
---|---|---|
Does not apply to workers | Applies to all businesses | Does not apply to citizens |
Actors | Funding |
---|---|
National government
Social partners jointly |
Other
|
Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:
Trade unions | Employers' organisations | |
---|---|---|
Role | Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative | Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative |
Form | Any other form of consultation, institutionalised (as stable working groups or committees) or informal | Any other form of consultation, institutionalised (as stable working groups or committees) or informal |
Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:
All peak-level social partners (Confederation of Finnish Industries, the Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff in Finland, the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions and the Finnish Confederation of Professionals STTK) were involved in designing this measure.
In March 2020, the Finnish peak-level social partners jointly proposed a set of actions for the Finnish Government. These proposed measures seek to amend labour law and facilitate adaptation of businesses to the new circumstances. They were proposed as a package of measures that includes both measures that support adaptation of businesses to the new market situation and measures that improve the situation of employees who have been dismissed or temporarily laid off.
Temporary deductions to employers' pension contribution were part of the set of measures proposed by the social partners.
Citation
Eurofound (2020), Temporary deductions to employers' pension contribution in the private sector, measure FI-2020-18/558 (measures in Finland), EU PolicyWatch, Dublin, https://static.eurofound.europa.eu/covid19db/cases/FI-2020-18_558.html
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