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Claiming unpaid wages after termination of employment relationship
Pursuant to the Employment Contracts Act (Chapter 2, Section 14), when an employment relationship ends, the pay period also ends. If payment of a debt arising from the employment relationship is delayed, the employee is entitled to full pay for the waiting days, though not for more than a maximum of six calendar days, in addition to the penalty interest referred to in Section 4 of the Interest Act (Korkolaki, 633/1982).
If the employee believes that they have not received all the wages owed to them after the employment relationship has ended, they must ask their employer for an adjustment of the payment of wages. If your employment relationship has ended, you can contact your employer by using the unpaid wages claim form.
Pay for waiting days
If a debt arising from the employment relationship is not clear or uncontested or if the delay in payment is due to the employer’s calculation error or other similar error, the employee is entitled to receive pay for the waiting days only if the employee has notified the employer of the delay in payment within one month of termination of the employment relationship and the employer has not made the payment within three working days of the notification. In such a case, entitlement to pay for the waiting days begins on the expiry of payment period granted to the employer.
My employer has not paid my final salary. What can I do?
According to the Employment Contracts Act, the final salary must be paid on the last day of the employment relationship. Check your employment contract or collective agreement (if there is one) to see if there is anything different agreed on the payment of the final salary in them. If the payment of the final salary is late, you can demand that the pay for waiting days be paid for a maximum of six calendar days.
Contact your employer and ask them why the payment of wages has been delayed. Demand the pay for waiting days to be paid. You can also submit an unpaid wages claim form to your employer.
If your employer does not pay your wages despite your demand, contact YTK’s legal service for employment matters by phone. If the non-payment of wages is due to the employer’s lack of funds and insolvency, you must file for pay security within three months of the due date of the unpaid wages. You can read more about filing for pay security here.
What should I do if the payment of wages is delayed?
What if the employer is insolvent? By logging in to the OMA+ service in the upper right corner, you can watch episode 8 of the Lakiruutu series on salary payment issues. Themes of the Lakiruutu series include the submission of a unpaid wages claim form and the process of claiming unpaid wages from the employer.
