Pre-conditions for your membership and the working condition with reference to unemployment security
In order to receive earnings-related daily allowance, you must meet the working condition during the time you are our member.
In order to be entitled to the unemployment allowance, you must have been a member of the unemployment fund for at least 26 calendar weeks and you must have been in a paid employment for at least 26 calendar weeks during the last 28 months. To fulfil this working condition, you must have 26 calendar weeks during which you have worked for at least 18 hours, and you must have been paid a salary in accordance with the applicable collective agreement. Read more about unemployment security.
There has been an exception to the working condition during the coronavirus epidemic.
Changing your unemployment fund
If you switch your unemployment fund, you can keep the number of days of the working condition you have already gained. You can do this if you join a new unemployment fund within a month after leaving your previous fund.
This means that you can switch to a new unemployment fund without losing the days of the working condition you have already collected. When you join us, you can authorise the YTK to sort things out when you leave your previous unemployment fund. This way, the whole process will be smooth and easy.
Extending of the review period
You can meet the working condition even if you have gaps in your employment history. We will look at all the work you have done over the review period of 28 months. In addition, it is possible to extend the review period by as much as seven years, if you have an acceptable reason for being absent from the labour market. This means that you were doing something that gave you a reason to be unavailable to the labour market.
Acceptable reasons for absence from the labour market include:
- illness, institutional care or rehabilitation
- military service or non-military service
- full-time studying
- giving birth or caring for a child below the age of three
- scholarship period
- another equivalent, acceptable reason
When you are absent from the labour market for an acceptable reason, those periods can be skipped when we examine the working condition. However, you must have a valid unemployment fund membership during those periods, i.e., you must pay your membership fee.
Example 1
Caring for a child below the age of three is an acceptable reason for absence from the labour market. When we examine the working condition, we will skip this period. This means that we will look at the period preceding it when we consider whether you fulfil the working condition.
Example 2
Full-time studying is also an acceptable reason for absence from the labour market. This means that, in order to fulfil the working condition, you can accumulate an employment history by doing summer jobs during your studies. If you are unable to find a job when you graduate, you can then apply for an earnings-related daily allowance.
Example 3
Military and non-military service is also an acceptable reason for being absent from the labour market. When we review the working condition, we will skip this period. This means that we will look at your employment history before this period when reviewing the working condition.
If you become unemployed when you leave the military or non-military service, we can use your employment history before you did the service to meet the working condition. We can also use your employment history before the service to meet the working condition later, if you have insufficient employment history after you did the service.