Strike benefit is intended for those members who lose income due to the industrial action or lockout. Strike benefit is paid for actual losses. This means that if you are, for example, on study leave the whole spring, you cannot apply for strike benefit although all your colleagues were on strike at that time.

OAJ reimburses expenses caused by the industrial actions through a daily strike benefit. The benefit is also paid for weekend days, provided that the employer is not paying a salary to the employee during the strike.

The union will ensure the participation in the strike from the local Industrial Action Committee and request statements on the income loss from its members after the strike, if necessary.

A member participating strike imposed by the organisation may apply for strike pay at the earliest on the day following the end of the strike. 

OAJ members apply for strike pay through the strike application. Logging in to the application takes place via My Profile.

Fill in the strike days on which you have participated the strike and the actual earnings loss has occurred. Also fill in the bank account number where you wish the strike pay to be paid to.

Instructions for applying for strike pay (PDF) (fi)

Instructions for applying for strike pay by mobile device (PDF) (fi)

Once you have read the instructions for the strike application you can apply for strike pay via the My Profile section.

The strike pay can be found on My Profile site left side menu after the strike. Scroll down the menu until you find the strike application.

The application will become visible after the strike. Scroll down the menu far enough to see the strike app title. If it is not visible, but you have the correct association on your data, contact directly the OAJ office and ask them to add you to the strike list. Contact: katja.jarvinen@oaj.fi or pawan.kumar@oaj.fi 

Strike pay must be applied for within 6 months. It's not possible to apply strike pay from the strikes 2022 anymore.

Members of SOOL and OSJ as well as members who are members of a non-strike association

Members of SOOL and OSJ fill in the enquiry form prior applying for strike pay. Also those OAJ members fill in the enquiry form who are members of an association in a locality other than the strike and cannot therefore fill in directly information on the application. You can access the enquiry form here:

Enquiry form

After completing the enquiry form you still need to apply for strike pay on the strike application.

You can apply for strike pay once you have received an e-mail notice enabling the application.

Problems with the strike application?

If you have problems with the application, please fill out this enquiry form:

Enquiry form for problem situations

The OAJ Executive Board has set the strike benefit paid to OAJ members at 180 euros per day in 2023.
During the industrial action, strike benefit will be paid for all the working days for which the employee is not paid by the employer.

Strike benefit is also paid to SOOL and OSJ members who are on strike.

The strike pay exceeding 16 euros is taxable income. The withholding tax is carried out in accordance with the tax authorities’ instructions and OAJ reports the information directly to the tax authorities. The remaining 50% tax will be deducted according to the tax administration’s decision. The share to be paid to the member is 98 euros per day. The withholding tax is equalized in the final taxation according to the full-year earned income.

OAJ cannot elude the tax authorities instructions. So do not send your tax deduction card for the strike pay, but have your income tax card for pay recalculated.

You must have joined the union as a member well before the strike, but before issuing the strike notice, at the latest. Strike benefits are paid to new members only after the union fees are visible on the union’s account.

If you have agreed on working as a substitute before the strike notice was issued and you take part in the industrial action, you are entitled to strike benefit. Strike benefit is also paid to SOOL and OSJ members who are on strike.

It is imperative that everyone participates in the strike. In connection with the potential industrial action, we will provide more detailed instructions to substitutes on how to apply for strike benefit.

We check the status of membership fees when paying strike allowances. If you have unpaid membership fees, you can calculate and pay the missing membership fees by logging in to the My Profile.

If necessary, you can also contact OAJ member services using the enquiry form or call the toll-free service number 0800 418 401. If the number of unpaid membership fees is large, a payment plan can be made.

No. The employee is not obliged to tell the employer in advance whether he will participate in the strike. The professional organization will notify the matter centrally.

No they are not. Employers do not have the right to gather information about the union membership of individual employees to prepare for a strike. This concerns all members, supervisory positions included. Such enquiries will be interpreted as attempts to break the strike. The union will address every such attempt.

No it cannot. It is a fundamental right. The union determines the limits of strike activity, in other words, the duties and places of work that the strike concerns.

No, it cannot. The strike also covers pre- and post-strike work. Meaning, work related to the strike is not to be performed.

The employer does not have the right to terminate or cancel the employment relationship due to a so-called legal strike. However, a strike does not prevent the employee’s right to terminate an employment contract valid until further notice at any time.

No you cannot. The union takes responsibility for the strike.

Up-to-date information about the status of negotiations in different agreement sectors can be found at this website in Finnish.

No, that is not part of supervisors’ official duties.

No.

OAJ's view is that the assessment of the need for care is not a strike-related job, but a job that is part of the daycare director's basic duties. So you can't refuse it. The director of the daycare center can, on the other hand, require other members of the OAJ working in the daycare center to carry out investigation work in the normal way of finding out the need for care.

Emergency work refers to work which is essential in order to prevent the endangering of the health and safety of citizens or to protect such property that would be especially endangered due to an industrial action.

The emergency work regulations only apply to civil servants. An employee in an employment relationship cannot be ordered to perform emergency work.

According to OAJ, work in the education, training and research field is not regarded as emergency work due to its nature.

The employer defines the boundaries of emergency and protection work, but teaching, educational or research work cannot be defined as emergency work.

During the strike, you can do other work not covered by the strike or engage in entrepreneurship. During a strike, a person may not, without the employer's permission, do work that is in competition with their own employer (principle of loyalty), unless otherwise agreed with the employer (e.g. side business permit).

During a strike, the employer does not have to pay in-kind benefits of a salary nature, such as lunch allowance and incentive benefit. The right to use the employee apartment remains during the strike. Upon the employer's request, the employee must hand over the employer's equipment, such as the phone and computer, to the employer when the strike begins.

If the employee has an agreed visit to the occupational health service before the start of the short strike, it is unlikely that the employer would deny the visit during the strike. In the case of illnesses that started during the strike, the employer can deny the right to use occupational health care services.

Yes, but according to the calculations of the Education and Science unemployment fund, the impact of the two-day strike is less than one euro per month.

The strike does not affect the length of the fixed-term employment relationship. A fixed-term employment contract always ends at the end of the agreed period, unless the contracting parties specifically agree on the continuation of the employment relationship.

When the trial period is valid according to the contract, either party can dissolve or terminate the employment contract without any special reason. However, the employer cannot terminate the employment relationship during the probationary period, nor during a strike, for a reason that would be discriminatory or otherwise inappropriate for the purpose of the probationary period.

If, for example, you are on a part-time pension or partial care leave, but no work assignments have been agreed on the days of the strike, the strike will not affect you. If work tasks have been agreed for strike days, you are covered by the strike and are entitled to strike allowance.

We do not see it as possible to move the school days. Section 23 of the Basic Education Act defines the following: 

"When, for compelling reasons, teaching has not been able to be organized as working days on the days specified and the goals according to the curriculum cannot otherwise be achieved, the lost working days must be compensated by increasing the working days by a maximum of six days." 

According to our interpretation, even a week's strike does not cause a situation where the goals according to the curriculum would not be achieved during the school year. For example, in corona spring 2020, no working days were added to teaching, even though there were interruptions and disturbances. Moving the working days would therefore be an attempt to break the strike. 

After the extensive strikes in the municipal sector in the spring of 2022, teaching did not move to the summer suspension period.

If the pregnancy leave and the employer's obligation to pay wages have started before the start of the strike, the salary during the pregnancy leave is normally paid for the duration of the strike as well. 

If the pregnancy leave starts during the strike, the employer is not obliged to pay the maternity leave salary before the end of the strike. However, the paid period of maternity leave does not expire during the strike. Only the date of salary payment is moved. Regarding the strike allowance, first find out whether the employer will withhold from you the salary for the days of the strike for the pregnancy leave that started during the strike, and only then apply for the strike allowance. If the salary has been withheld, you are entitled to strike allowance from these days, if not, you apply for strike allowance from the days before the maternity leave.

If the sick leave starts before the start of the strike, the salary according to the contract must be paid for the period of the sick leave. 

If an employee falls ill during a strike, he is paid sick pay only after the end of the strike, if the illness continues. He is, however, entitled to the health insurance daily allowance.

After confirming the annual leave, the employer is not allowed to postpone or interrupt the employee's leave, even citing a strike.

The winter vacation that started before the strike will continue despite the strike and will end as the vacation has been confirmed. The person returning from vacation must inform the employer about returning from vacation and going on strike, so that the employer does not interpret the absence after the vacation as so-called for unauthorized absence. For the period of annual leave, the normal salary for the period of annual leave is paid, but the employer is not obliged to pay holiday pay for the winter holiday preceding the strike.

If the annual leave starts during the strike, then the annual leave is transferred. The employer pays holiday compensation for missed leave, but the employer is not obliged to pay holiday pay. 

Winter holidays cannot be postponed beyond the end of April. In these cases, the winter vacation is paid as holiday compensation. 

Annual leave is not accrued during the strike. 

The employee and the employer can mutually agree on the postponement of the holiday.

If the strike and annual leave start on the same day, then the time is decisive. Annual leave starts at 0:00. According to strike warnings, the strike starts at 0:01 a.m. on strike days. In this case, the employee is on annual leave and not on strike.

The strike does not affect the terms of the agreed study leave. Study leave is determined according to the Study Leave Act and Regulation. The strike does not affect work or official leave that has already started or agreed upon.

If the person has agreed to participate in vocational training or a comparable opportunity during the strike, Juko's central strike committee can grant a work permit for the duration of the training. In this case, the training must take place outside the workplace, and it must not involve the performance of the tasks referred to in the contract area, even in the sense of training. You can get contact information through your shop steward. You must participate in industrial action trainings organized by Juko and the unions in the normal way.

It is work that is placed on strike, not people. If you are a member of Retired Teachers in Finland, OSJ, you are obligated to participate in the strike and are entitled to receive strike benefit.

If you are not a member of OSJ, you may take part in the strike without being sanctioned by your employer. In this case, however, you are not entitled to receive the strike benefit.

The strike affects the amount of pension through the reduction of salary on which the pension is based. In a short industrial action, the impact is minor.

It does not.

No.

No.

If the union has made the strike decision, supervisors can participate in the strike pursuant to this decision. Supervisors can participate in the strike, although they were appointed as the employer’s representative. The employer cannot prohibit anyone from participating in the strike or exclude persons in charge from the industrial action in advance.

No, that is not part of supervisors’ official duties.

OAJ's view is that the assessment of the need for care is not a strike-related job, but a job that is part of the daycare director's basic duties. So you can't refuse it. The director of the daycare center can, on the other hand, require other members of the OAJ working in the daycare center to carry out investigation work in the normal way of finding out the need for care.

As a rule, shop stewards and occupational safety and health representatives within the scope of the limits of strike will participate in the industrial action. JUKO and OAJ define the limits of strike.

Shop stewards also takes care of matters related to the employee relationship of an individual member during the industrial action. It should be noted that the employer might not pay any compensation for this period.

It is work that is placed on strike, not people. A non-unionised employee may take part in a strike without being sanctioned by their employer. Strike benefits, however, are only paid to members of OAJ.

Strike results benefit all employees, also non-unionised ones. They can take part in the strike, but are not entitled to strike benefit. In accordance with the principle of neutrality, employees not belonging to the organisation arranging the strike or employees belonging to the organisation whose duties are not covered by the strike are not obligated to perform duties which fall within the scope of the industrial action.

However, they have the legal right to refuse to perform work under the strike which they do not usually perform (e.g. section 12 of the Municipal Civil-servant Collective Agreements Act). This is also expected from them by the strikers as well as their organisation.

Political strikes differ from ordinary strikes in many respects. In an ordinary strike, OAJ can sanction its' member who violates the strike.

OAJ, however, emphasizes that the industrial action is a joint action by everyone and is only effective if everyone does their part to ensure that the strike holds.

OAJ closely tracks of changes in membership during industrial action. If a member cancels their membership at the end of a collective agreement period or upon learning of a strike notice and returns after the industrial action as a member, the member is placed under a waiting period. They can reinstate their membership only after the waiting period. OAJ processes each case separately and clarifies currently valid memberships.

You must have joined the organization well in advance of the strike, but no later than before the strike warning is issued. Strike allowances are paid to new members only after the membership fees have been registered in the organization's account.

The strike does not affect the due dates of wage receivables. If an employee has a salary receivable that is due during the strike, it will be paid on the due date. In the event of a delay in performance, interest in accordance with the Interest Act must be paid to the claimant. This only applies to previously accumulated receivables due during the strike. Naturally, no salary will be paid during the strike.

The extent of the strike is always shown in the strike warning. It tells you which work is covered by the strike and which work is outside the strike.

We know that the work of those working at the university involves a lot of traveling, and in April–May there are several camp schools and class trips both in Finland and abroad. These are taken into account when defining the limits of the strike.

A strike can end unexpectedly and with very short notice. The employee has the obligation to be available to the employer immediately after the strike ends. The organization therefore does not recommend traveling abroad during the strike.