Foreign companies with posted workers in Finland must have a representative in Finland whom the posted workers and the authorities can contact at all times during the posting. In practice, this means they must have an address in Finland. The posting company is obligated to keep available in Finland information on the company and posted workers at all times during the posting. In practice, communication with the authorities is carried out via the representative.

Selecting a representative

NOTE! The guidelines based on the application of the old law can be found here.

The representative must be competent to act for the company posting the worker in a court of law and to receive on behalf of this company summons and other documents issued by the authorities. For instance, the representative must handle official transactions on behalf of the foreign company. The representative is practically authorised to act on behalf of the company. The representative is not responsible for discharging the employer's obligations.

A representative need not be selected in case the posting of the worker is no more than 10 days in duration.When determining the duration the posting period and all previous posting periods for the last four months during which workers of the same posting company have been working in Finland will be taken into account. Posting refers to all the days when one or more posted worker work in Finland. The months are calendar months.

A representative may be a legal entity or natural person, for instance the client in Finland (e.g. the user company employing an agency worker), an accounting firm or other service provider supplying services related to posted workers for foreign companies. If a posted worker is sent to a company in Finland belonging to the same group of companies, that company in Finland may act as the representative. The representative may also be a foreign national who is contactable in Finland.

Should the posting company not select a representative, it will be obliged to pay a penalty fee for negligence.

The contractor must ensure the appointment of a representative and availability

If the contractor has specified the appointment of a representative in the agreement signed with a foreign company, this is considered to fulfil the contractor’s requirement to ensure such an appointment. However, the parties to such agreements do not always execute the agreements in writing. For this reason, the contractor may also demonstrate in some other way that he has ensured that the foreign employer is aware of the requirement to appoint a representative and the related obligations.

On the OSH authorities' request the contractor must obtain information from the posting company on where and how the representative can be reached. This information must be given to the OSH authorities.

Should the contractor on the OSH authorities' request not obtain information on where and how the representative may be reached, and consequently does not provide the OSH authorities with this information, the contractor will be obliged to pay a penalty fee for negligence.

Keeping the information available

The posting company must have available in written during entire posting in Finland the following:

• identifying details of the posting company
  • the registered official name of the company, business ID, registration number with the authorities in the country of origin (if any), address in the country of origin and responsible executives in the home country,
• identifying details of the posted worker
  • name, personal identity number (if any), and age and professional qualifications in the case of job duties where a specific age and qualifications are required,
• an explanation of the posted worker’s right to work, and
• information on the posted worker’s terms and conditions of employment
  • duration of the employment contract, location where the work is performed, job duties, applicable collective agreement, grounds for determining wages, and working hours.

If the duration of the posted worker’s posting is more than ten days, the posting company must have available in written during entire posting in Finland:

• a record of working hours concerning the posted worker’s work in Finland,
• payslip and
• document issued by a financial institution of the wages paid.

Information must be available for immediate use, but they may be kept in electronic form.

Information must be kept for two years after the posted worker’s work has ended. Information can be stored abroad, but the information must be forwarded to the authority upon request.

The posting company must notify the contractor before the work begins in Finland who is in possession of the aforementioned information during the posted worker´s posting.

Should the posting company not have the information needed available, it will be obligated to pay a penalty fee for negligence.

Provision of information to the contractor

The posting company must give the client a certificate of the determination of social security (accident insurance, pension insurance) for those posted workers who begin their work after the start of the work specified in the agreement. However, said certificate must be supplied before the later-starting posted workers begin their work. The certificate must be retained for the duration of the work.

The information referred to above does not have to be provided if the value of the subcontracting agreement is less than EUR 9,000 (ex VAT) or if the work of the posted workers lasts for no more than 10 working days. Several fixed-term employment contracts running back to back or with only brief interruptions are considered continuous employment. If the contractual relationship between the partners can be considered to be well established, the client does not need to inform the posted worker’s employer in writing about the competent occupational safety and health authority.

Provision of information to the staff representative

With the consent of the worker, the posting company must provide the shop stewart or the elected representative with the working terms applicable to the posted worker´s employment contract. This information must be given when the duration of the posting exceeds 10 working days.

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