Appendix 6 - Working hour reserve in it service businesses

1. Starting point and purpose of the scheme

Working hour reserve scheme in the IT service sector

In order to promote employees’ capability to work, a local agreement on a working hour reserve scheme can be concluded as specified below. The agreement on a working hour reserve and annual changes will be affected by the enterprise’s human resources, the labour situation, and special needs related to each working community.

2. Accumulating the balance for the working hour reserve

Basic rates and increases paid for overtime work can be transferred to the working hour reserve. The employee must agree upon this procedure in advance with his or her supervisor when agreeing on overtime work.

The working hours banked in a working hour reserve scheme shall be compensated for as full days off.

The employee has the right to accrue a maximum of 15 banked working days at any one time.

3. Free time against the accumulated working hour reserve

The employee shall propose a schedule for taking days off against the accumulated reserve no later than three months before the start of any such leave. No later than two months before the proposed beginning of such leave, the employer must notify the employee as to whether it accepts the proposal. If the employer rejects the proposal, it must draw up its own proposal for the related leave schedule, and an agreement shall be concluded on the basis of this.

In order to maintain employees’ capability to work, the unions recommend that days off granted on the basis of the working hours reserve be taken as uninterrupted periods of at least five working days.

The employer does not have the right to change the time of agreed leave unless there are especially weighty reasons to deny the leave at the time in question, associated with the enterprise’s operations and the employee’s duties. In this case, the employer must inform the employee of when the leave can be taken.

If the accumulated leave cannot be taken within two calendar years of its accumulation, it will be compensated for in monetary terms.

Any accumulated leave not taken before termination of employment shall be paid in money.