Finland updated its Working Hours Act in 2020. The new law, 872/2019, replaced the previous framework and introduced more flexibility - but also more complexity. If you run a business with employees in Finland, here is what the current rules require.

Regular Working Hours

The baseline is 40 hours per week, or eight hours per day. This is the standard from which everything else - overtime, flexible arrangements, compensatory time - is measured.

Many Finnish collective agreements set the regular hours lower, often 37.5 hours per week for white-collar workers. The Act sets the ceiling; the agreement may set the floor lower. Check the applicable collective agreement for your sector.

Overtime Limits

Finnish law caps overtime strictly. Workers can work a maximum of 250 hours of overtime per year. Within any four-month period, overtime must not exceed 138 hours.

You can agree with an employee, in writing, on additional overtime of up to 150 hours per year. That brings the theoretical maximum to 400 hours annually, but this requires an explicit written agreement for each worker. You cannot apply it as a blanket policy.

These caps are tracked per employee, per calendar year. Without a reliable system logging each person's hours and overtime balance, you are flying without instruments.

Flexible Working Hours

The 2020 reform expanded flexible working time arrangements. A worker can now have a "working time bank" - accumulated time credits from overtime or flexible hours that can be taken as time off. The maximum balance is 60 hours in credit or 20 hours in deficit.

Flexible work also allows daily starting and ending times to vary by up to three hours from a set core time, as long as the weekly total is met. This requires a written agreement between employer and employee.

These arrangements reduce rigid scheduling constraints - but they increase the administrative burden. You need to track balances per employee, not just total hours.

Rest Periods

Between shifts, employees are entitled to at least 11 consecutive hours of uninterrupted rest. For any working period of more than six consecutive hours, a break of at least 30 minutes is required.

Weekly, employees must have at least 35 consecutive hours of rest, preferably including Sunday where possible.

Night Work and Shift Work

Night work is permitted under Finnish law when the nature of the work requires it. Night hours are defined as 23:00 to 06:00. Workers on rotating shifts that include night hours must receive an additional compensatory rest period or an equivalent financial benefit, as specified in the applicable collective agreement.

Finlex and Verification

The Working Hours Act (872/2019) is available in full at finlex.fi, Finland's database of legislation. The Occupational Safety and Health Authority (Työsuojeluviranomainen) handles inspections and enforcement. Their guidance documents are also available in Swedish and English.

Employers are required to keep a working hours register for each employee. This must record daily and weekly hours, overtime, and any use of a working time bank. The register must be available for inspection on request.

The Practical Challenge

Finland's law gives employers meaningful flexibility - working time banks, flexible start/end times, written agreements for extra overtime. That flexibility is genuinely useful. It also means your tracking needs to be more granular, not less.

A single spreadsheet tracking total hours is not enough. You need per-employee overtime balances, time bank credits, and rest period gaps - all visible in one place, in real time.

Rezano tracks working hours, overtime balances, and shift gaps across your whole team automatically. Setup takes under 10 minutes. Try it at rezano.lv.