Your employment relationship is unaffected by strikes
If an employee participates in lawful industrial action, it does not entitle their employer to cancel or terminate their employment contract or to end an employment contract in a trial period or a fixed-term contract.
An employer may not discriminate against striking employees, for example when deciding on working hours, working times, pay rises or other matters.
The strike termination agreement ensures that employees who have reported to the workplace by a set date are taken back as so-called existing employees. If after the strike ends an employee returns to work by the deadline, their terms of employment continue as before.
Read about how a strike may affect pay or other benefits below.
Ending work
Work is finished off as normal before a strike begins. Before the strike begins, handing over keys etc. must be agreed at the workplace, so that employees can leave the workplace without problems when the strike begins. Keys are to be handed over against a receipt or in some other verifiable way.
Payment of unpaid wages
Employers are not liable to pay wages for the period of a strike. Employers must pay wages, daily allowances, travel compensation and other amounts that employees have earned and that are due for payment on the normal wage payment dates, also during industrial action.
Benefits in kind
Employees are not entitled to employer-funded benefits in kind such as lunch vouchers. Work equipment owned by the employer and used by the employee, e.g. company cars, must be handed over to the employer before industrial action begins, unless otherwise agreed.
Employer-provided dwelling
An employee’s employment relationship does not end due to a strike, so you are entitled to live in an employer-provided dwelling during a strike.
Working hours
If a strike is short in duration, when work is resumed after the strike ends the pre-established working hours list is observed, otherwise the strike-ending agreement applies.
Possible accrued days off during a strike
During industrial action the pre-established working hours list is observed. If this includes reduced working time (hours/days), these are used up in the normal way, but if they are not entered in the list in advance, they are carried over to a later date. Accrued time off is generally accumulated and used during the working hours period in use in the company.
Annual holiday
The start of a strike does not interrupt holiday that an employee has started. The employer must pay holiday pay and holiday bonuses as normal before the holiday begins.
Exceptions:
- in the opinion of the Labour Council, holiday cannot be required to start during a strike
- if a strike begins before agreed annual holiday, the employee is on strike and the holiday is postponed
- if a strike and pre-notified holiday begin on the same day, the employee is on annual holiday, because annual holiday begins at midnight and the strike only begins after this (i.e. when your shift would begin).
Absence from work due to a strike is not counted as time equivalent to working days in calculating annual holiday in the next holiday period.
Holiday bonus (holiday bonus pay)
If an employee’s annual holiday or part of it ends during a strike and he/she goes straight from holiday to being on strike without returning to work, he/she is not paid holiday bonus for this holiday. Because of this, PAM’s regional office can grant permission to return to work if you apply for authorisation.
Sick pay
If an employee falls ill before a strike begins, he/she must be paid sick pay also for the period of the strike in accordance with the provisions of the collective agreement. You are advised to send your medical certificates to your employer straight away and tell them when you expect to recover, even if you join the strike once your sick leave ends.
If, on the other hand, you fall ill after going on strike, the legal practice is that you do not have to be paid sick pay for strike days. However, you are entitled to health insurance daily allowances.
Students and subsidised employees
Students doing compulsory work training at strike sites could find themselves in a position where the work they do is covered by a strike and should not be performed. If students participate in a strike, however, this could mean their studies are held up. Therefore the shop steward must negotiate the position of students separately with the education institutes concerned. These negotiations must take place before the strike begins, and the result must be communicated to the students. The recommendation is that students and on-the-job learners should not be required to do work covered by a strike.
Subsidised employees whose so-called reset counter depends on every working week should apply for a work permit from the PAM regional office in good time before the strike begins. The regional office uses its discretion in granting authorisation to work.