According to the information received by Tehy, at least in the Wellbeing Services County of Keski-Uusimaa (Keusote) the employer is piloting the self-employment model for a small group of nurses.
Tehy supports all models aimed at improving the continuity of care, such as the care team model and the personal doctor/personal nurse model, but these models must be organised with nurses who are in an employment relationship and not in the form of compulsory entrepreneurship.
“The wellbeing services counties have already implemented team models using their own workforce, so neither the continuity of care nor the teams require a leap into the unsecure position of an entrepreneur,” says Tehy’s President Millariikka Rytkönen.
In Keusote, the employer is marketing the self-employment model as an “opportunity” for employees, without informing the employees about the disadvantages of the model. Self-employment involves problems related to the organisation of work, such as uncertainties with regard to responsibilities and the division of duties. It is also unknown how a team comprising of people forced into becoming entrepreneurs would agree on the work or holidays with each other.
No annual holiday would accumulate in accordance with collective agreements. The employee would also lose their right to paid sick leave.
The employer seeks savings through the model
In practice, employees who are forced to become self-employed entrepreneurs would lose the security provided by their employment relationship.
“They want to do to our industry the same thing that happened to the construction industry in the 1990s, when construction industry professionals were pushed into compulsory entrepreneurship and this led to some of them offering low prices while shirking the industry’s requirements. Do we really want to bring that to our industry too?” Millariikka Rytkönen asks.
Through the self-employment model, employers are looking to save money in salaries and wages, insurance premiums and social insurance contributions, among other things.
Millariikka Rytkönen from Tehy is concerned about the trend in which the employer introduces compulsory entrepreneurship as a form of employment in primary health care.
“The public sector prioritises money when purchasing services. At worst, the self-employment model will lead to nurses competing with each other over who will do the work at the lowest price,” Millariikka Rytkönen says.
Enquiries: Development Director of Tehy Katri Lindqvist, tel. +358 (0)40 588 3431, [email protected]