Some service sector workers likely to be able to take their primary school-age children to school
Primary school children may be entitled to classroom teaching so that their parents can work in front-line services, for example retail, pharmacies or cleaning services. Photo: Getty Images
Persons staying at home with school children are not paid, but classroom teaching will continue for primary school children with parents working in front-line services.
To delay the spread of coronavirus and protect vulnerable groups, the Finnish government decided to stop classroom teaching at schools from Wednesday 18 March.
The government’s decision did not close schools completely. Schools will provide pre-school education and classroom teaching for classes 1-3 for children of parents working in front-line services. Classroom teaching will also be provided for pupils who have received a special support decision. Some PAM members work in front-line services.
On Tuesday the government published a list of front-line services (in Finnish). These include retail, retail logistics centres and transport, Food Service wholesale and institutional canteens, public transport security personnel (guards and stewards), airport security control personnel, pharmaceutical supplies including pharmaceutical supply operators and pharmaceutical supply logistics centres as well as cleaning and sanitary services. Under the government decision, teaching will be provided only for children of critical employees in each of these groups. There are certain to be revisions to these instructions. The default position is that everybody will care for their children at home where possible.
An employee is entitled to care for a child for family reasons, but without pay. In some collective agreements, caring for a sick child is paid, but only for children under the age of 10 and usually only for 3 days. If your income is not sufficient for essential expenditure, you can supplement your income by claiming social assistance from Kela.
Distance working is rarely possible in service sectors. Employees can try to agree with their employer to use accrued days off to care for their child.
Read more about how the coronavirus epidemic is affecting employment situations