The employer has the right and the duty to plan shifts. The shift roster is the plan according to which an employee works, and it is drawn up by the employer on the basis of the principles set out in the collective agreement. The roster must be communicated to the employee at least one week before the start of the period covered by the plan.
The employer cannot change a confirmed roster completely arbitrarily. The employer can only make changes to the roster for justified reasons. These reasons must be necessary for the operations of the workplace to run smoothly. The existence of a justified reason is considered on a case-by-case basis. Naturally, the employer and the employee can agree to change the roster. The employer can correct errors in the roster. The fact that the number of working hours is too many or too few in the roster is not a justified reason to make changes to the roster.
Health and social services (SOTE) agreement improves working time provisions
Thanks to the SOTE agreement, we have achieved significant improvements in working time provisions in the social and healthcare sector. For period-based work, a minimum number of days off was set for the first time in autumn 2021. Each week of the work period ensures two days off during the period. In addition to this, a day off is defined as a calendar day, and a day of sleep after a night shift, for example, is not considered a day off.
Other working time provisions for social and healthcare personnel have also been developed. Around 20% of social and health care staff work general working time, and they too can now take meals quickly while they work, just like those who work period-based working time.
When period-based working time is applied, the working time reductions brought about by public holidays have been ensured in the form of full days off, similarly to general working time. These days are days off on top of the minimum number of days off specified for period-based working time. The interruption rules for period-based working time were corrected to match those for general working time.
For a long time, the members of Tehy have asked for longer working periods of more than three weeks. This was experimented with by applying six-week work periods, but with a tweak to the scheduling of compensation for inconvenient working hours. Compensation is paid every three weeks, even if a six-week working period is used. Furthermore, longer working hours do not have a negative effect on overtime compensation.
According to research, longer work periods facilitate autonomy and ergonomics in shift planning. This, in turn, increases staff wellbeing. Based on the experience gained from the experiment, the provision concerning six-week work periods has been agreed as a permanent provision in the current SOTE agreement.
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Listen to the Finnish-language ‘Meidän vuoro’ podcast by Tehy, where the blog post author Juha Honkakoski talks with paramedic Veera Kamaja and nurse Tico Svart about the everyday life of a shift worker. The ‘Meidän vuoro’ podcast series contains stories from the social, health care and early childhood education and care sectors – straight from the horse's mouth.
Work towards even better working conditions continues
Important steps to improve working conditions in the SOTE agreement were agreed on in the previous round of negotiations. The agreement on the collective agreement contains provisions implementing an experiment in which the workload of those working night shifts under the SOTE agreement is alleviated through reducing the regular working time to a theoretical 36 hours per week. The plan is to negotiate and agree on the related provisions from autumn 2025 onwards, so that the actual experiments can take place between 2026 and 2027, i.e. before the next round of negotiations. The objective is to carry out this reform in cooperation with the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. We sincerely hope that employers will join the upcoming experiment with an open mind.
Furthermore, we have worked together and identified the need to reform and clarify the working time provisions in the SOTE sector as a whole. This effort has been entrusted to the work time working group of the SOTE agreement during the current agreement period. The aim of the reform is to bring about an overall reform of the SOTE sector, so that the SOTE agreement would apply a longer working time balancing period and overtime would not be accumulated similarly to period-based working time.
Read the study by ETLA Economic Research and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (content in Finnish, abstract available in English) on how information on working time and care could be used to assess the workload and impact of work among healthcare workers.
(This blog post has been updated on 22 August 2025.)