The employer's statutory insurances

Your company must arrange the pension security of its employees between the ages of 17 and 67 by purchasing a TyEL earnings-related pension insurance for them. 

If your company has employees on a permanent basis, you must enter into a policy with the employment pension insurance provider of your choice. Post information on the name of the insurance company with which your company has an employment pension insurance policy in a place where it is easy for your employees to view. The Pension Institution may propose to the State Treasury the imposition of a default payment for pension insurance if the employer does not take out an employment pension insurance within the time limit.

If your company is a casual employer, you will not need a separate policy with an employment pension provider. 

In certain situations, the Finnish Centre for Pensions can also exempt a foreign employer from the obligation to take out pension insurance.

Your company will pay approximately one fourth of the sum it pays in salaries in insurance premiums. Report all paid salaries to the Incomes register within five calendar days of payment of the salary. Employment pension insurance companies receive earnings data from the Incomes register in real time.

Deduct employee contributions from the employees’ salaries and pay the entire sum to the employment pension insurance company.

For more information, see the Finnish Centre for Pensions’ Employer’s obligations pageOpens in a new window..

The insurance policy will provide cover, if an employee of your company is injured in a workplace accident or during a business trip or if an employee develops an occupational disease. 

Your company must purchase occupational accident and disease insurance, if it pays or has agreed to pay more than 1,400 euros in wage earnings over one calendar year for work it has ordered. If you neglect your insurance obligation, you will have to pay an accident insurance negligence fee corresponding to an insurance premium deemed reasonable.

You can purchase the policy from the accident insurance provider of your choice. Different insurance providers have differing practices, which means the specific cost of insurance premiums will be determined when you purchase a policy. 

You are obligated to notify the insurance provider 

• the information it requires, for example your company’s sector as well as the company’s ownership, by the end of January each year. 
• of any changes to relevant information within a period of 30 days from the time of the change. 

Insurance companies will receive information directly from the Incomes Register on salaries and occupational class. Please keep in mind that you are responsible for reporting the correct data to the Incomes Register. Always correct entries in the Incomes Register.

Your employee is always entitled to compensation for an occupational accident or occupational disease, even where you have no obligation to provide insurance or have not taken out insurance in accordance with the law. Claims are processed and compensation paid by the Compensation Center. If your company has neglected its obligation to insure its employees, you will be ordered to pay the Workers' Compensation Center a sum equal to your missed insurance premiums and a fine for negligence, which will amount to at most three times the sum of your insurance premiums. The Workers' Compensation Center will also charge your company for the compensation paid to your company’s employee to a maximum sum provided in legislation.

If you are unsure whether the earnings paid during the calendar year exceed the insurance obligation limit, you should consider taking out an insurance policy. This will help you avoid additional costs, in case of e.g. an occupational accident, if the employee’s total earnings exceed the limit obligation. 

For more information on occupational accident and disease insurance, see the Finnish Workers' Compensation Center’s Taking out an insurance policy pageOpens in a new window..

You must purchase an employees’ group life assurance for your employees, if the universally binding cooperative agreement for the sector your company is in requires this.

Purchase a group life assurance policy from the same insurance company from which you have purchased your company’s occupational accident and disease insurance policy.

The group life assurance premium will be based on the total sum of the salaries your company pays. The cost differs depending on the insurance company. A group life assurance premium is less than 0.1% of the total salaries your company has paid.

Pay the group life assurance premium to your insurance company at the same time as you pay your occupational accident and disease insurance.

Group life assurance is valid during both your employee’s working hours and spare time. If your employee, who is covered by your group life assurance policy dies, the Employees' Group Life Assurance Pool will pay compensation to the deceased person’s spouse and children.

For more information, see the Employees' Group Life Assurance’s wesiteOpens in a new window..