Offering extra hours to part-time workers

Part-time workers often like to have extra hours so that they get more pay. The employer must offer extra hours or shifts to the workers who already work there before hiring new workers.

A worker can also choose not to do any extra hours. When you sign an employment contract, you can agree to do extra hours. Even if you have agreed to do extra hours, you can still refuse to take extra hours on days that would have been free for you if you have a good personal reason for refusing.

Having two jobs (two different employers) is not the same thing as doing extra hours.

On this page, there is information about your right to do extra hours, and about the possible impact of extra hours on the employment contract.

Table of contents

• Part-time workers must be offered extra hours first
• If you do extra hours regularly, the hours in your employment contract may be updated
• Extra hours or overtime – normal or higher pay?
• Worker – you can ask for extra hours
• Shop steward: Make sure that the workers get their extra hours

Part-time workers must be offered extra hours first

If the employer needs more workers for tasks that their part-time workers can do, the employer must offer those tasks (the extra hours) to the part-time workers (Chapter 2, Section 5 of the Employment Contracts Act (pdf)).

The employer must tell about available jobs and offer extra hours equally to all the workers who want to get extra hours. The employer must offer extra hours when a full-time job becomes open, and when any extra hours are available. If the employer does not offer the extra hours, the worker has the right to demand compensation for the lost income.

The hours must be offered to any part-time worker who is fit for the work. If the tasks require some training, and the employer can organise that training without too much trouble, the worker has the right to get the training.

Fixed-term workers also have the right to get extra hours. When the employment ends, this right also ends. A fixed-term worker does not have the right to get more hours after the employment contract ends.

You can tell the employer at any time that you want to do extra hours, even if you had told them differently before.

The importance of the right to extra hours in the service sector

The right to extra hours is very important for part-time workers. The possibility to get paid for more hours in the future is important when choosing to work in the service sector.

15% of all workers have a part-time contract. In PAM’s sectors, only the wholesale sector has fewer part-time workers than this. In retail (the Commercial sector) and in the Hotel and Restaurant industry, about 40% of workers are part-time workers. In Property Services and Security Services, about 20–25% of the workers are part-time workers. In the sectors that PAM covers, workers often work part-time even if they don’t want to. There are not enough full-time jobs. For example, about 48% of part-time salespersons and waiters wanted to work full time. (Statistics Finland 2020)

At many workplaces, workers don’t get all the extra hours that they should. Employers often say that they must hire new part-time workers because the need for staff is different at different times and on different days, and there is a lot of variation in this. It is often difficult for workers to take on extra hours when they are offered just before the shift begins. The worker may have made plans, often with the family, based on the regular shifts in the roster.

To make the right to extra hours work well, employers should plan the shift schedules better. The systems for averaging working hours that are agreed in collective agreements let employers plan the shifts so that there are more workers at work during busy hours, and the workers’ right to extra hours is also taken into account.

Extra hours must be offered to all part-time workers equally. It does not matter how long the worker has worked for that employer, for example. As a result, the service sectors have long-time workers who have wanted to work full time, but have never had the opportunity. This hurts the reputation of these sectors.

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If you do extra hours regularly, the hours in your employment contract may be updated

Some of PAM’s collective agreements say that employers must, together with the worker, regularly compare the worker’s real hours to what the employment contract says. If the real working hours are regularly higher than what the employment contract says, and there is no special reason for this, the higher number of working hours must be entered in the employment contract. You then have new regular working hours.

The working hours review system aims to

• Improve the dialogue between employer and worker
• Make the working hours more stable for a part-time worker
• Encourage the worker to actively follow his or her working hours
• Prevent disagreements about extra hours

For example, if your regular hours are 20 hours per week, and one hour is added to the contract, you will get 5% more pay.

The following collective agreements say that employers must, together with the worker, regularly compare the worker’s real hours to what the employment contract says:

Commercial Sector: The hours are reviewed every six months. A longer period can be agreed locally. The period must not be longer than one year. For more information, read 9§ in the collective agreement.

Hotel, Restaurant and Leisure industry: The hours are reviewed from January to January. A shorter period can be agreed locally. For more information, read 7§ in the collective agreement.

Property Services: The hours must be reviewed at least every 12 months. For more information, see 8.15§ in the collective agreement.

Security Services: The hours are reviewed, and the agreement updated, if the worker or the employer ask for it. For more information, read the collective agreement (in Finnish).

Alko: Hours are reviewed every year, for one calendar year. For more information, read the collective agreement (in Finnish).

It is important that the real working hours are updated in the employment contract. The worker’s wages are more secure when the real working hours are stated in the contract.

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Extra hours or overtime – normal or higher pay?

When a part-time worker works more hours than what the employment contract says, it is called extra hours. Usually, the hours up to 40 hours per week are called extra hours. In the Hotel, Restaurant and Leisure Industry, the total number of hours for three weeks is counted, and the hours up to 120 hours are extra hours. If you work more hours than this, it is overtime. You get overtime pay (overtime compensation) for overtime hours.

For extra hours, you usually get normal wages. In some collective agreements, different compensations have been agreed for the hours between the regular working hours and the point where overtime begins. For example, in the Commercial Sector and Property Services, the maximum regular hours are 37.5 hours/week. In the Hotel, Restaurant and Leisure Industry, the maximum regular hours are 112.5 hours/three weeks.

The workplace may also use a working hours averaging system (also called adjustment system) that is allowed in the collective agreement. The maximum regular hours are then not counted for one or even three weeks, but for a longer period. Working hours may be different every week, but when looking at the whole period, the hours should be within the maximum regular hours.

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Worker – you can ask for extra hours

As a worker, you can remind your employer of your right to extra hours. To get extra hours, you should not need to ask for them, but it may still be a good idea.

If you want to work part-time or have told your supervisor that you don’t want to take on extra hours, they don’t have to offer you any. You can change your mind any time and tell your employer (the company) that you want extra hours. After this, the company has to offer you extra hours if they are available. You can ask for extra hours doing the same tasks that you normally do.

If training is needed for the extra work, the employer must give you the training. The training obligation is fairly narrow, but more than normal orientation that is given when you start in a job.

The employer must also use the systems that have been agreed in the collective agreement when these make it easier to offer extra hours to workers. The employer has the right to schedule the work according to the real need. If workers are needed at a time when all the part-time workers are already working, the employer must of course get someone new.

If your employment contract says that your working area is a whole region or the metropolitan area, for example, you have the right to ask for extra hours in that area.

Examples:

• The company needs more workers in the shoe department, and a cash register worker wants to do extra hours in the shoe department. The employer must give the worker the training that is needed for working in the shoe department.
• The company has three stores in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The employer must offer the worker extra hours doing the same work in all three stores.
• A company needs a cook, and a part-time salesperson wants to do the extra hours. The employer does not have the obligation to train a salesperson as a cook. This training is too complex.

How do you know whether you are getting the extra hours that you have the right to get?

The rosters (shift schedules) are the most important document when you want to find out if you have the right to the extra hours. The worker, or his or her representative, can ask the employer to show the rosters. You can ask the occupational health and safety authorities for help if you don’t get the rosters. When the occupational health and safety authorities ask for the rosters, the employer must send them a copy.

If you notice a mistake in how extra hours are offered, talk to the employer / the person who makes the rosters. If you ask for extra hours but don’t get them, talk to the shop steward (luottamusmies). The shop steward is the person that follows whether extra hours are offered correctly. The shop steward also has the right to get information about the employment relationships at the company. If no shop steward has been elected for your workplace, you should elect a shop steward. This can be done any time.

You can also take an active role in making sure that you get the hours that you have a right to. Be active.

• If new workers are hired to your workplace, ask your supervisor for more hours. You have the right to get the hours before new workers are hired. Follow the situation. If it looks like you could have taken on the hours that the new worker is doing, talk to the shop steward.
• Write down the planned working hours, and the real working hours. If the shift changes, write down who wanted to change it. You can use the PAM calendar and the attached working time calendar. Later, when trying to find out if you have got the extra hours that you have the right to get, it helps to have written records.
• Check your payslip.
• Check that the hours stated in your employment contract are the same as the hours that you are doing. Read more above at “If you do extra hours regularly, the hours in your employment contract may be updated”.
• Talk to other workers about extra hours!

Union representative: Make sure that the workers get their extra hours

Make sure that everyone is getting the extra hours that they have the right to get.

• According to the collective agreement of the Commercial Sector, the employer must discuss with the shop steward all of the following: the principles of how extra hours are offered; the number of hours that part-time workers are doing, their development trends and estimated development; the number of hours in employment contracts and the actual number of hours worked, their ratio and development trends; the possibilities to apply flexible full-time work; and other possible measures that can be used to increase the proportion of full-time employees, or near full-time employees.

Keep on eye on new employees being hired.

• Ask why the hours aren’t being offered to existing employees.
• Demand that the employer finds out whether the existing employees’ right to extra hours has been met before new employees have been hired.

Make sure that working hours are reviewed as stated in the collective agreement, and that the employment contracts are updated with real working hours.

• The collective agreements of the Commercial Sector, the Hotel, Restaurant and Leisure Industry, Property Services, Security Services, and Alko have rules about this. Read more above at “If you do extra hours regularly, the hours in your employment contract may be updated”.
• Remind employees about the reviews and when and how the hours can be updated.
• If the reviews are not being carried out, notify the employer.
• If the reviews are not being carried out appropriately – for example, the hours are not updated in the employment contracts – contact the PAM regional office.

If you think the right to extra hours has not been met:

• You have the right to get from the employer all the documents needed to clarify the situation, including the rosters.
• Demand that the situation is corrected. When necessary, ask the regional office for help.

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Read more:

• Zero-hours contracts and on-demand workers
• Overtime in the Services Sector