“Light entrepreneurship” is spreading in the cleaning sector

A Duunitori ad published in March 2026 sounds at first glance ordinary: We are looking for a careful and proactive cleaner to handle changeover cleanings for Airbnb apartments. The work would include, among other things, changing bed linens, cleaning surfaces and floors. The ad emphasizes punctuality and that the cleaner will always receive support and clear instructions.

The company’s expectations include carefulness, flexibility in working hours and a positive attitude. Pay would be 17 euros per hour. The company promises to provide regular work, clear instructions for each location and says it is a reliable employer.

In reality, the company looking for cleaners, Tampere-based Hako Group, does not intend to act as an employer, since the cleaner is not sought for employment but as a light entrepreneur.

Light entrepreneurship is justified by a small amount of work

Hako Group calls itself the country’s largest provider of furnished apartment maintenance. On its website the company says it is responsible for the cleaning of 1,800 furnished apartments. In addition, the company maintains over two hundred premises.

PAM has monitored the company’s job postings on Duunitori. Between February and April, the company had posted twelve adverts seeking cleaners to work as light entrepreneurs.

Later in May and June Hako Group has also sought employed cleaners on Duunitori.

We contacted Hako Group CEO Konsta Hakanen by phone to ask why the company has recruited cleaners as light entrepreneurs. Hakanen ended the call with “no thanks” when he heard the call came from PAM communications. He eventually agreed to answer questions by email.

Hakanen says the company currently has 73 cleaners, of whom 40 are employed and the rest operate as entrepreneurs. He says the company’s goal is that by the end of 2026 90 percent of the cleaners would be in permanent employment. Entrepreneurs have been used, he says, because initially there was little work and the work was not established.

According to Hakanen, the average hourly billing for entrepreneurs has been 21 euros per hour on weekdays (VAT 0 %) and 39 euros per hour on holidays (VAT 0 %). Hakanen says that most of the light entrepreneurs do work under piece-rate arrangements they negotiate themselves.

A contract alone does not make employment into entrepreneurship

PAM’s contract expert Anu Kähkönen has long followed the use of different entrepreneur models and commission agreements in the service sectors. Kähkönen finds the situation worrying.

– In the service sectors there is a development where the risk of entrepreneurship is increasingly shifted onto the individual worker. Demand for work is often variable, which has partly increased the use of commission agreements. At the same time the line between employment and entrepreneurship becomes blurred.

According to Kähkönen, false self-employment refers to a situation where work is carried out in a way that meets the characteristics of employment, but the contract is drafted as an entrepreneur agreement.

– The line is not determined by the contract, but by how the work is actually done. The assessment is based on the whole, taking into account, among other things, the right to direct and supervise the work, the allocation of economic risk and how freely the worker can decide on performing the work.

– Entrepreneurs bear the economic risk of their work themselves, as illness or taking time off directly means loss of income. Sick pay is not paid, nor can annual holiday be accrued as in employment, Kähkönen reminds.

Kähkönen emphasizes that “light entrepreneurship” is not a legal term, and it does not define the legal nature of the work. Under the law in Finland work is done either in employment or as an entrepreneur.

– Therefore it is essential to determine whether the work is actually carried out in employment or as entrepreneurship. The amount or irregularity of the work does not make it entrepreneurship, nor does it decide the legal nature of the work. Irregular and small amounts of work can also be done in employment.

Using light entrepreneurs aims to minimize risks

The cleaning company Suomen Siivouspiiri Oy in Southwest Finland has also sought a cleaner to operate as a light entrepreneur on Duunitori. The company offers home cleaning. CEO Jesse Halme gave a comment to PAM by phone.

– We are a new company and this is a good way to minimize risks and offer light entrepreneurs a bit better compensation. Our field is challenging because in interviews everyone naturally says they are top cleaners, but the truth is unfortunately often a little different. What our level is and what is required from our cleaners does not always match that perceived good cleaning, Halme says.

Wouldn’t a trial period be enough to minimize such risks?

– That is one option, but there are of course other obligations for the company in an employment relationship. I want, with little risk, to see how the business can be grown. Of course we also aim to hire our own employees, but in the early phase it is difficult to say how many hours of work there will be each week, Halme answers.

Halme says that the fee paid to the entrepreneur starts from the cleaner’s own proposal, and if that is considered sensible and reasonable, they will proceeded with the contract. He also says the company provides the cleaner with work equipment. And does the company supervise the cleaners’ work and results?

– We have arranged an initial meeting and go through the criteria and the points that must be met. Cleaners can of course give their own professional view on the matter and through that proceed to perform a trial cleaning. Of course we react immediately if the work quality has been poor. In that case we have defined in the contract terms what the measures are.

According to Halme, a fee is paid to the entrepreneur cleaner for the trial cleaning.

Later Halme wants to clarify that he did not mean minimizing risks to avoid employer obligations, and that responding to quality does not mean daily management or managerial supervision.

Light entrepreneurs and employees are being recruited at the same time

Hakanen says Hako Group offers work opportunities that entrepreneurs can take according to their own situation. He emphasizes that this is not a binding shift roster but an opportunity to accept work.

Hakanen also writes that they monitor work quality to ensure customer satisfaction, but it is not a matter of managerial supervision.

In April a Hako Group job ad was published on Duunitori seeking a cleaner for furnished apartments as an employee. The job ad is similar to those where cleaners are sought as entrepreneurs.

According to Kähkönen, in such a situation it should be ensured that entrepreneurship is genuine.

– Entrepreneurship is genuine when the person has actual freedom to decide about their work, the pricing of the work and their customers, but also responsibility for their operations and the associated financial risk.

According to Hakanen, entrepreneurs have been considered people who do their “own thing” and receive additional orders for their company from Hako Group.

Hiring employees is planned

According to Hakanen, Hako Group is aware of the characteristics of employment and they have been taken into account in operations. In their model, he says, “work is not mandatory”, “the worker decides themselves about accepting work” and “the amount of work is not tied”.

In addition, Hakanen writes that the company goes openly through what entrepreneurship means and how it differs from employment. Going forward the company intends, he says, to move to an “employment model”, but intends to keep the “entrepreneur model as an option for those it suits best”.

In May and June job ads published sought several employed cleaners for Hako Group to do work under the terms of the collective agreement for property services.

Suomen Siivouspiiri’s Halme says that the characteristics of employment are not fulfilled for the cleaners they use.

– Based on the research and review I have done, they should not be fulfilled. You cannot say about the work sites when they are, and there is no regular schedule like being here every Monday or there — instead they come a little sporadically every day.

Have you not felt that a worker called in when needed could be an option?

– As said, at a later stage the intention is to be able to hire several permanent employees. But now we are so early in the phase that we have to consider the cost sides a bit, when certain obligations arise from hiring even a single employee, Halme says.

Halme later wants to clarify that he meant hiring permanent employees requires sufficiently predictable workload and continuous need for labor, whose assessment is difficult in a new company.

Finland needs a faster way to determine whether work is employment or genuine entrepreneurship

Forced entrepreneurship or false self-employment can be encountered in the service sectors both in platform work and even summer work at an ice cream.

– PAM has proposed for the next parliamentary term that legislation should address companies’ possibility to have work done in an employment-like way but without employment protection. Forced entrepreneurs do not have the protection of labour and social legislation, which was created to protect the weaker party. At the same time, the party commissioning the work often defines requirements for the work and shifts all employer obligations and risks onto the person doing the work, Kähkönen says.

Therefore Kähkönen says Finland needs a quick and effective way to confirm whether the work is done in employment or genuine entrepreneurship. Currently the determination must be sought through the courts and the process can take years.

At the same time deliberate misinterpretation of legal status – for example classifying a person doing the work incorrectly as an entrepreneur – should carry significant sanctions for the party commissioning the work.

– This phenomenon must be addressed now. Otherwise there is a danger of false self-employment spreading and becoming common, which ultimately undermines workers’ security and earnings, Kähkönen warns.

Text: Pauli Unkuri