What should I do if I am laid off due to the pandemic caused by the coronavirus?
The World Health Organization WHO has declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. Different countries have introduced a wide variety of measures to slow down the development of the pandemic. Those measures have direct and indirect effects on economic activities. A slowing economy will in turn lead to lay-offs and more people becoming unemployed. In those cases the unemployment benefit is the primary support for livelihood.
Quick instructions in case of lay-off
- Register in the TE Office as an unemployed job-seeker.
- Make the first application in OmaYTK when the lay-off has lasted for a minimum of two weeks. OmaYTK advises in filling out the application.
- Apply for daily allowance no later than three months after the start of the lay-off.
- If you need advice, you will find it on our website, and you can also use the chat. Or you can ask for advice through OmaYTK or call our customer services. We are expecting a high volume of contacts in these channels, so the first places to check out are the website and chat.
- Further information on lay-offs on our website.
If you fall ill
If you fall ill, you need to comply with the practices agreed on at your workplace. Short absences can be taken care of with your own notification or a sick leave ordered by a doctor. The Employment Contracts Act prescribes about the right to receive sick pay. You can read more on the website of the YTK Association at https://en.ytk-yhdistys.fi/employment-advice/pay-during-illness. If the illness is prolonged, you can apply for sickness daily allowance from Kela.
If you receive earnings-related daily allowance during lay-off and you fall ill, you should keep applying for daily allowance as per normal. A short-time illness does not affect your right to receive unemployment benefit. If the illness lasts for more than 10 days, you should mention in the application for daily allowance that you have been ill, and apply for sickness daily allowance from Kela.
If you fall ill so seriously that you are hospitalised or put in other institutional care, you should also mention that in the application. When you are in institutional care, according to the law you are not available to the labour market. You are not entitled to receive earnings-related daily allowance for such a period. Read more about the effects of illness on earning-related daily allowance.
If your working is prevented due to someone else falling ill
The pandemic caused by the coronavirus may lead to a situation in which your working is prevented, even if you are not yourself ill. In such cases your employer is obliged to pay you a salary as per normal for 14 days. If you are still prevented from working after that time, you can apply for earnings-related daily allowance from us. The TE Office will issue a statement on a reason comparable with lay-off that binds the unemployment fund.
Sickness allowance on account of an infectious disease and earnings-related daily allowance
You can also apply for sickness allowance on account of an infectious disease from Kela, if you have been ordered to stay away from work in order to prevent the spread of a communicable disease.
The sickness allowance on account of an infectious disease paid by Kela does not prevent the payment of earnings-related daily allowance, but it will be deducted from the earnings-related daily allowance paid. So if you have been in part-time employment, you can apply for adjusted earnings-related daily allowance, even if you receive sickness allowance on account of an infectious disease for the part that you have suffered loss of earnings from the part-time work. In those cases the payment of the unemployment daily allowance is based on the income received from part-time work, and earnings-related daily allowance can be paid with the sickness allowance on account of an infectious disease deducted.
