Finland Times

Thousands of municipal and local government employees’ workdays will be prolonged or extended this year, as meal times will no longer be considered working hours, reported the Finnish language daily Keskisuomalainen.

Breaks for meals for many working in the care sector require about 2.5 hours per week, or about a hundred hours a year.

The change is due to a reform to the General Collective Agreement (KVTES) in which the period for working hours was changed to a more universal working-hours standard.

According to the social and healthcare trade union TEHY, the reforms do not take into account that universal working-hours standards are incompatible with the realities of nursing.