REPORTING INCAPACITY FOR WORK – Illness during annual leave

Inform about any absences immediately

Employees may be absent from work on the grounds of incapacity for work due to a verified illness, ailment or injury. Employees must immediately notify in person their supervisors about their absence and its expected duration.

Inform about any absences immediately

1. your superior by phone or e-mail
2. by email to address henkilosto(at)cs.helsinki.fi

All absences due to an illness or accident must immediately (when back to work) be reported through the SAP HR portal.

Certificate of absence

Nurses’ and doctors’ certificates must be submitted to Personnel Services on the relevant campus or to the superior, who will forward the certificates to Personnel Services, within 14 days of the first day of illness, unless for compelling reasons the employee is unable to do so.

• Doctor’s certificates are not, however, required for short illnesses lasting from one to three days, unless the employee’s unit has adopted another practice.
• Should the illness last longer than three days, employees must provide a doctor’s or nurse’s certificate for the fourth and fifth day of absence.
• If the illness lasts more than five days, a doctor’s certificate is always required.

The amendments to the Sickness Insurance Act and the Occupational Health Act (dated 1 June 2012) require that the employer submit monthly real time reports on absences due to illness to the occupational health services. The above amendments and the guidelines for employers issued by Kela, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, entail that notices of sickness absence and the related medical certificates are submitted to personnel services without undue delay.

Pay during sick leave

University employees time of the paid sick leave is defined according to Universities common collective agreement, in Finnish (Yliopistojen yleinen työehtosopimus).

Note that every day of the week counts as a sick day, which means that an absence lasting from Friday to Monday counts as four days of sick leave and employees must present a doctor’s or nurse’s certificate for Monday’s absence. If an employee is absent from work due to an illness from Monday to Wednesday, for example, and returns to work on Thursday but is absent on Friday because of the same illness, he or she must present a doctor's or nurse’s certificate for Friday’s absence as it counts as the fifth day of the same illness.

In the event of incapacity for work during annual leave

In the event of incapacity for work during annual leave

1. Obtain a doctor’s certificate (employees’ own statements or nurse’s certificates are not accepted) immediately on the first day of sickness. Deliver the certificate immediately to your employer and specifically request a carry-over of annual leave. NB! The doctor’s certificate must include a diagnosis and be written in Finnish, Swedish or English. If the certificate is in another language, you must be prepared to obtain an authorised translation of the certificate at your own expense.
2. After receiving your request, the employer will assess whether you are entitled to a carry-over of annual leave. Requesting a carry-over of annual leave does not automatically extend the original leave.
3. The employee and the employer must agree (or, if necessary, the employer must order) the dates of the annual leave to be carried over, as instructed by the collective agreement and the law.
4. If some leave remains after the period of incapacity for work, the annual leave will continue according to the original plan.

More information in Flamma: https://flamma.helsinki.fi/en/HY309641

Contact information

Viikki campus service unit - staff services, PO Box 62, 00014 University of Helsinki

At the Department please contact henkilosto(at)cs.helsinki.fi, which reaches all SoleTM contact persons Heidi Kinnunen, Inka Kujala, and Päivi Kuuppelomäki, and in addition Tiina Väisänen.