Termination of Employment in Finland

Resignation, employer dismissal with notice, expiry of a fixed-term contract, cancellation during probation and immediate cancellation for an extremely weighty reason are different legal events. The category affects whether grounds are required, whether a notice period applies and what remedies may arise.

Instead of relying on informal expressions such as 'the job is over' or 'do not come back', clarify in writing which legal termination mechanism is being used. At the employee's request, the employer must without delay provide a written statement of the end date and the known grounds for dismissal or cancellation.

An employee on an indefinite contract can generally resign without giving a substantive reason but must observe the applicable notice period. The employer, by contrast, needs lawful grounds and the required procedure to terminate the employment relationship.

Employer grounds may relate to the employee's conduct or breach of duties, or to a substantial and permanent reduction in available work for economic or production reasons. Evidence, warning, reassignment or other duties can differ according to the legal category and facts of the case.

Unless something else has been agreed, the notice period comes from the statute and depends on how long the employment has run without interruption. Under the Employment Contracts Act (55/2001) chapter 6 section 3, the periods the employer must observe are: 14 days if the employment has lasted up to one year; one month if more than one year but no more than four; two months if more than four years but no more than eight; four months if more than eight years but no more than 12; and six months if more than 12 years.

The periods the employee must observe are shorter and have only two steps: 14 days if the employment has lasted no more than five years, and one month if it has lasted more than five. So a person with eight years of service gives one month when resigning, while the employer must give four months when dismissing that same person. The asymmetry is in the statute itself.

An agreed notice period may not exceed six months; if a longer one has been written down, six months applies instead. The employer's period may be longer than the employee's, but not the other way round: if the period agreed for the employer is shorter than the employee's, the employee is entitled to observe the employer's period. An applicable collective agreement can set different periods, and those then govern — so check your sector's collective agreement as well as the statute.

Failing to observe the notice period is measured in money. An employer that ends the contract without observing the notice period must pay the employee full pay for a period equivalent to the notice period as compensation. An employee who does not observe the notice period pays the employer a lump sum equivalent to their pay for that period. Where the notice period has been observed in part, the liability is limited to the pay due for the part not observed.

When employment ends the pay period ends with it: final pay is as a rule due on the day the employment ends. If payment is delayed, the employee is entitled to full pay for the waiting days — a maximum of six calendar days — on top of the penalty interest under section 4 of the Interest Act (633/1982). In practice that means up to six days' extra pay on top of the unpaid final salary.

There is one exception, and it requires the employee to act: if the debt is not clear or uncontested, or if the delay is due to the employer's calculation error or a similar error, the employee is entitled to waiting-day pay only if they notified the employer of the delay within one month of the end of the employment and the employer did not pay within three working days of that notification. Miss the one-month notification and the entitlement goes with it.

An employee dismissed on financial or production-related grounds also has a re-employment right. If the employer needs new employees for the same or similar work within four months of the employment ending, it must offer the work to the former employee, provided that person is still seeking work through the employment services. Where the employment had lasted without interruption for at least 12 years, the re-employment period is six months. The right only operates while your jobseeker registration stays open.

Where a termination is unlawful, the statute frames compensation as a range: the exclusive compensation is equivalent to a minimum of three and a maximum of 24 months' pay (with a 30-month ceiling for shop stewards elected under a collective agreement). The amount weighs the estimated time without employment, the estimated loss of earnings, the duration of the employment, the employee's age and chances of finding comparable work, the employer's conduct in terminating and comparable matters. And the figure that decides whether any of it is available: after employment ends, the claim expires unless suit is filed within two years of the date the employment ended.

A conventional fixed-term contract ends without notice when the agreed period expires or the agreed work is completed, and generally cannot be terminated mid-term by notice unless the parties agreed on a termination right. The law contains a separate rule for contracts lasting more than five years.

A new termination rule applies to the special reason-free fixed-term first contracts permitted from 1 June 2026: after the employment has lasted at least six months, the contract can be terminated even if it does not separately contain a termination clause. Do not mix this exception with the traditional fixed-term rules.

Where a valid trial period has been agreed, either party can cancel the employment without a notice period. The cancellation cannot, however, be based on discriminatory grounds or on grounds inappropriate in view of the purpose of probation.

Before an employer terminates or cancels the relationship, the employee must be given an opportunity to state their view on the grounds and may use an assistant. Do not assume that procedure becomes irrelevant merely because the employee is still on probation.

Työsuojelu states that where an employee has neglected duties arising from the employment contract, the employer normally cannot give notice before issuing a warning and giving the employee an opportunity to correct the conduct. The seriousness and circumstances of the breach can affect the assessment.

In a dispute, it matters what the warning concerned, when it was issued, what correction was expected and what happened afterwards. Do not assume that an old or unrelated warning automatically justifies dismissal for every later event.

Notice should generally be delivered personally; where that is not possible it can be sent by mail or electronically. Written notice is safer as evidence. The length of the notice period can be determined by the employment contract, collective agreement and Employment Contracts Act.

Check that final salary, holiday compensation and other earned amounts are correctly included in the final settlement. At the end of employment, the employer must provide a certificate of employment if requested. If unemployment follows, do not delay jobseeker registration and the relevant Kela or unemployment-fund steps.

In a disputed termination, first preserve the chronology and evidence: contract, warnings, employer notices, performance discussions, rosters, working-time records, payslips and relevant messages. Relying later only on memory makes the dispute harder to assess.

Työsuojelu can provide guidance and supervise compliance with employment rules, but it does not litigate an individual's compensation claim in court. Depending on timing and financial significance, consider a trade union, legal-aid office or employment-law counsel for case-specific assistance.