Temporary agency work
Updated: 24.02.2020
In temporary agency work, an employer hires out workers to work for another employer. The company that needs workforce signs a contract with the agency that hires out workers. Temporary agency work always involves three parties: the employee, the temporary work agency and the user company, that is, the company using the workforce in question.
Who is your employer, who supervises your work?
In this line of work, the temporary work agency is the employer of the workers that it hires out.
An employee signs an employment contract with the temporary work agency and he/she does not have an employment relationship or any other contractual relationship with the company who has hired the employee from the agency. The agency is the only one who can terminate or cancel the employment contract.
The company that hires an employee from the agency (i.e. the user company) manages and supervises the work of the employee. The temporary work agency is responsible for all the other employer’s obligations as stated in Finnish labour laws (such as payment of salary).
What should you know as a temporary agency worker?
- You should have a written employment contract (even for a short-term job) with the temporary work agency.
- Find out the duration of employment, and if that information cannot be given, find out how the employment ends.
- See to it that you receive induction into your work. A temporary worker should also receive induction – both into the work and into health and safety at work.
- Find out about your occupational health care.
- Find out about the shop steward and the occupational safety representative at the workplace.
- Write down all the work shifts you have done and your workplaces – save the information.
- Always check your payslip.