The service is intended to help young people new to working life ensure their pay and conditions are up to legal minimums. It has been busy this year, with plenty of workers querying aspects of their employment.
“Most questions are about wages and remuneration in one form or another,” says lawyer Joonas Tutti, who works for the service.
Callers are often interested to find out if their wages are in line with agreed minimums specified in sector-specific contracts. Unpaid overtime or bonuses and payments due to permanent staff but not paid to summer workers are another cause for concern.
Other calls focus on which tasks a temporary worker can legally refuse to perform. Some callers, for instance, have asked if they really have to repair appliances about which they have very limited knowledge.
The cold weather has ensured that one aspect of labour law is causing fewer complaints than in previous years. Tutti says that there have not been as many requests for information on so-called ‘heat breaks’ due in hot weather as in years gone by.