Government wants to make job alternation leave a permanent fixture

Scheme offers temporary jobs for jobless, sabbaticals for long-term employed

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The government has decided to propose that the law on job alternation leave should be made permanent.
      Under the job alternation, or vuorotteluvapaa scheme, a person with a job is allowed to take time off work in order to make room for someone who is unemployed.
      If it is not extended, the law on job alternation leave would expire at the end of the year.
     
The scheme has the double benefit of allowing someone who has worked for a long time to take an extended break, while providing at least temporary work for someone who has been without a job for a longer period of time.
     
The way that the scheme works is that an employee can agree with his or her employer to take between three months and a year off work, while the employer agrees to hire an unemployed job seeker for the same period.
     The person taking the leave is entitled to a special compensation, equivalent to 70 per cent of unemployment compensation; for those with at least 25 years of work behind them, the compensation would rise 80 per cent. This has averaged EUR 965 a month, or EUR 44.9 a day.
      More than 150,000 people in Finland have availed themselves of the opportunity since 1996.
     
About 40 per cent of the money paid to the person taking the leave comes from the state. The rest is financed from unemployment insurance contributions paid out by employers and employees, as well as membership fees for unemployment funds.
      Under the government’s plans, those taking job alternation leave would accrue less pension than before - from the beginning of 2010, accrual would be 55 per cent of the earnings that the compensation is based on, down from today’s 75 per cent.


Links:
  Eurofund website: Job alternation leave:

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