The Finnish working life has an old, straightforward view towards an inability to work caused by illness. The saying “you can return to work once you have fully recovered” is an indication of this culture. Even if an employee’s ability to work is weakened due to an illness or injury, they will often have some ability to work.
Alternative work refers to a situation in which an employee works temporarily with tasks deviating from their usual ones when they are unable to complete their regular work due to an illness or injury. Alternative work is an alternative to a sick leave.
Workplaces will often have plenty of work that needs to be done. It is possible to find good and meaningful solutions with the help of creativity and open-mindedness. The duration of alternative work is determined on the basis of each employee’s needs and may vary between individuals. However, it is only meant as a temporary and alternative solution to a sick leave or until the recovery has progressed.
The alternative work cannot conflict with the employee’s skills and physical prerequisites. Occupational safety must be taken into account in the alternative work. The employee’s employment accident insurance is valid when they carry out alternative work as well as if they terminate their sick leave early and return to work earlier than expected.
From challenges to shared solutions
Alternative work is often related to a discussion over whether it is mandatory for the employee and should it be included in the collective agreement. The starting point is that an employee in an employment relationship has an obligation to do their work, and the employer pays them a salary for it.
The Finnish Employment Contracts Act guarantees a person who is on sick leave due to an illness and has a doctor’s certificate the right to a salary for the duration of the sick leave. On the other hand, the Finnish Health Insurance Act requires that a person receiving sickness allowance is unable to complete their work or a closely related work due to an illness. From a labour law perspective, the employer has the right to supervise work and instruct the employee to work with tasks which they have been deemed able to do. The best solution is when the employee and employer can agree on the work arrangements together. When there’s willingness and good practices become the norm at the workplace, the employee and supervisor can agree on how the work tasks are adapted, and no input is needed from occupational healthcare.
Collaboration benefits everyone
A good and functioning alternative work model for the workplace is agreed upon at the workplace together with the various parties and occupational healthcare and processed in a cooperative manner. The practice of alternative work benefits both the employee and the employer. The employee learns new skills and methods from the alternative work as they get to know other types of tasks. The employee is paid the salary they get from their actual job for the alternative work, which is better than social security benefits. Continuing to work is also a factor promoting the employee’s health. From the perspective of the national economy, all work – even that completed with a smaller effort – promotes productivity and is more profitable compared to an employee being completely absent from work.
Occupational healthcare’s role in implementing alternative work:
- Together with the workplace, participates in the planning of the workplace’s alternative work practices
- In connection with assessing the ability to work, also assesses the employee’s prerequisites for the alternative work
- Creates a description of the limitations of the work; what kind of work can the employee carry out despite their illness without endangering their recovery and state of health .
The employer’s responsibilities:
- Descriptions of operating instructions and practices that are incorporated into sick leave instructions
- Suggesting options for alternative work
- Agrees on an alternative work model together with employee representatives. This helps avoid misunderstandings and the misuse of the operating method
- Ensures that the alternative work is meaningful and corresponds to the employee’s skills
- If necessary, communication with the employee and occupational healthcare
- Offers coaching for supervisors so that the model can be implemented successfully. The coaching must include the application of the alternative work in practice as well as justifications for the extra work caused by the alternative work to supervisors
Expectations for the employee:
- An open and active attitude to the alternative work
- Acceptance of the potential alternative work
- Communication with the supervisor and occupational healthcare as needed and if the situation changes during the alternative work
Tuomas Kopperoinen, Specialist in Occupational Health, Chief Development Physician