Under an amendment to the Annual Holidays Act that entered into effect on 1 April 2016, annual leave can be carried over due to illness only after a qualifying period of five (5) days. In practice, this means that, as of the beginning of April 2016, if employees fall ill during their annual leave, they cannot carry over their annual leave due to illness until they have been ill for at least five days of their leave, either consecutively or in several periods, during the holiday year in question. If employees wish to carry over their annual leave due to an illness, a doctor’s certificate is required for each day of illness during the annual leave.

If employees fall ill and the illness lasts more than five days during their annual leave in a consecutive period, they must promptly notify their supervisor of their illness, request the carry-over of leave and immediately submit a doctor’s certificate starting from the first day of illness (self-reporting or a nurse’s certificate are not permitted) to the University’s employment services unit. NB! The doctor’s certificate must include a diagnosis and be written in Finnish, Swedish or English.

If the illness lasts less than five days of annual leave and the employee wishes to have the days of illness included in the five-day qualifying period, the employee must obtain a doctor’s certificate of the illness, as described above. If such short periods of illness comprise more than five days of annual leave in the holiday year, the employee is entitled to request the carry-over of his or her leave as of the sixth day of illness. In such cases, the employee must have obtained a doctor’s certificate of all days of illness occurring during days of leave and must have submitted the certificates to the employment services unit. In addition, the employee must promptly notify any sickness absences that exceed the qualifying period and request the carry-over of leave.

All employees must be guaranteed a four-week annual leave, which means that the five-day qualifying period does not apply to employees who have accrued less than 20 days of annual leave.

The accrual of annual leave during parental leave also changes

As a result of the legislative amendment, employees can accrue annual leave for a maximum of six months of maternity, special maternity, paternity and parental leave that begins on or after 1 April 2016.