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Legal Buddy

Did your employment end unexpectedly? Would you like to check that your salary was paid correctly? If you are faced with tricky situations in working life, talk to the Legal Buddy-legal service! You will receive professional advice quickly and easily.

Mies puhuu puhelimessa ja katsoo läppäriä.

In working life, we can face a variety of situations, from unpaid wages to unexpected redundancies. When this happens, confusion can easily turn into anxiety, and it’s hard to cope on your own. That’s when a Legal Buddy can help you. Contact the Legal Buddy in OMA+.

The Legal Buddy is for all combined members of the YTK*. You can contact a lawyer about your employment relationship right away, and the personal lawyer premium service is available to you if you have been a combined member for at least 6 months at the time of the incident.

Here’s how the Legal Buddy can help

The guide provides comprehensive information on employment-related issues, from job search to pay and termination of employment. Sulo, the chatbot who lives in the chat room, is on hand to find the answers to the questions you’re looking for. Open the guide.

Whether it’s about the terms of your employment contract, unpaid wages or ambiguities regarding the end of your employment relationship, you can ask a lawyer for advice as soon as you become a member of YTK Worklife.

You can contact the employment lawyer and the experts either by phone or by submitting a call request in the “Messages” section of OMA+ (under “To Legal Buddy”).

If you leave a call request on OMA+, Lawyers will call you back within three working days on average. The call will come from a number starting with 020.

Advice by phone or via a call request covers general advice over the phone.

Is your case about daily allowance? Please contact the YTK Unemployment Fund.

Sometimes advice alone is not enough and a lawyer or payroll expert is needed for a wider range of issues, such as checking payroll or drafting a letter of claim. To qualify for the free premium service, you must have been a member of YTK Worklife for at least 6 months at the time of the incident. The conditions for access to the premium service will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Please see the terms and conditions of the service in OMA+.

Up to 90% of Legal Buddy cases are settled without litigation. However, if that should happen, you as a member have legal expenses insurance to protect you. Legal expenses insurance can cover your legal fees and court costs in the event of a dispute, in accordance with the terms and conditions of the insurance. Find out more about the insurance here.

“Thank you very much for this service. You showed that you are not alone when things happen in the workplace.”

A network of top professionals, including almost 60 lawyers from all over Finland, will assist you in your employment matters. Up to 9/10 of Lakikaveri users would recommend the service to others!

Examples of situations where a Legal Buddy can help

  • Unpaid wages and salaries
  • Suspicion of illegal dismissal
  • Conditions to be included in the employment contract
  • Change in the terms and conditions of employment
  • Termination agreements
  • Workplace harassment
  • Breaches of employment contracts
  • Chaining of employment contracts
  • Fixed-term contracts, family leave, holidays… and other employment issues on your mind
Mies ja nainen juttelee

Experiences of our members

The lawyer who handled my case was extremely helpful, caring and professional. I felt very good about the service and I was very happy with it.

Mary

Very very good work that YTK lawyers are doing.

Tom

A network of top professionals is at your service!

YTK Worklife is partnered with OpusLex, a network of lawyers in the Legal Buddy. OpusLex is a network of independent law firms in more than twenty locations, with a total of about sixty lawyers working all over Finland.


Frequently asked questions

The Legal Buddy is a service for combined members of the YTK*, through which a combined member can get legal help with questions and problems related to their employment or professional relationship. It is also available to combined members who are working as managing directors.

The Legal Buddy service consists of four different parts, which differ in terms of content and membership requirements:

  • A guide to working life, which you can find on our website.
  • General advice from your Legal Buddy, available to you as soon as you become a combined member.
  • The premium service of the Legal Buddy, which you can access through the advice service once you have been a combined member for at least 6 months before the incident.
  • Legal expenses insurance covers you if your case is not resolved through general advice or the premium service and you have been a combined member for at least 6 months before the incident.

An OpusLex lawyer can take a member’s employment or employment-related problem – for example, pay claims or ambiguities related to termination of employment – to his or her desk. He or she will find out if there has been any wrongdoing and, if necessary, take the matter further. The aim is to bring the parties to the problem on an equal footing and find an amicable solution. If this is not possible, the case may continue to be resolved in court, in which case costs may be recovered through legal expenses insurance, provided that the conditions of the insurance are met.

The Legal Buddy database, labour law advice and premium service are included in the YTK Worklife membership fee of 24 € in 2024.

If a case requires the use of professional legal expenses or liability insurance, the combined member will have to pay at least the insurance deductible.

The telephone helpline, website guide and chatbot are available to you right from the start of your YTK Worklife membership. The premium service is available to you if you have been a member for at least 6 months before the start of the chain of events requiring settlement and the event started in 2021 at the earliest. The terms of the legal expenses insurance are determined by the insurance company.

You can contact the Legal Buddy lawyers on all matters relating to employment and civil servant relations as soon as your combined membership of the YTK* is valid. The lawyers in the OpusLex network will answer your questions. You can get general advice by telephone. If necessary, a lawyer can refer you to a premium service.

The premium service covers a preliminary examination of legal questions and problems relating to your employment or professional relationship by an OpusLex lawyer. This may include, for example, case analysis and drafting of documents. The service also helps CEOs who are combined members of the YTK. Cases occurring before 2021 will not be considered. In addition, combined membership must have been in force for at least 6 months prior to the start of the chain of events requiring settlement.

Professional legal expenses insurance covers civil and criminal matters relating to your employment or service. The terms and conditions of the legal expenses insurance are determined by the insurance company.

In our working life guide, you will find information on topics such as pay, employment contracts, annual leave and working hours. There’s also a chatbot, Sulo, to help you with your employment issues.

As a combined member of the YTK*, if you have a question or problem related to your employment that you would like help with, you should first contact a lawyer via OMA+. If the case cannot be resolved at this stage, the lawyer will determine whether the matter can be covered by the premium service. If this is the case, the OpusLex lawyer will check with the YTK Worklife that you are entitled to premium service and ask you for the necessary consents to deal with the case.

Once the OpusLex lawyer has obtained the necessary authorisations, he will start the investigation. The lawyer will familiarise himself with the details of the case and take the matter forward as the situation requires. Often, the matter is resolved within the framework of the settlement. If the matter is not resolved and a dispute arises, you should discuss with your lawyer the use of legal expenses insurance. An OpusLex lawyer can ask the insurance company whether the case is covered by legal expenses insurance. The insurance company will make a decision on compensation if legal expenses insurance is used. If the case is not covered by the legal expenses insurance, it may remain there or continue, for example, in a hearing with the authorities.

If the case cannot be resolved through employment law advice or a premium service, a lawyer from the Legal Buddy service can ask the insurance company whether the case is covered by legal expenses insurance. If this is not the case, the case may remain there or continue, for example, in a hearing with the authorities.

You can’t. The employment law advice and premium service are provided by the OpusLex network of lawyers, a partner of YTK Worklife.

This means that you must use a partner firm in the OpusLex network. OpusLex has around 60 lawyers specialised in employment relationships in 22 locations throughout Finland. As a rule, the lawyer is appointed on a locality-by-locality basis and you cannot choose a lawyer yourself.

In the vast majority of cases, the combined membership condition is not met. Combined membership of the YTK* is required at least 6 months before the start of the chain of events. For example, in the case of a termination of membership, combined membership of the YTK must have been in force for at least 6 months at the time the member receives notice of termination in order for the case to be eligible for premium services.

No. In the Premium service, the decision on the member’s access to the service is made by a lawyer from the OpusLex network of lawyers (legal assessment) and YTK Worklife (combined membership and fulfilment of other conditions of the service). In the case of legal expenses insurance, the insurance company decides on the eligibility for cover. Therefore, a negative decision on the lawyer’s settlement services does not imply a negative decision on the legal expenses insurance.

Legal expenses insurance and the premium service differ in terms and conditions. For example, commentary and advice on termination agreements are covered by premium services, but the terms of termination of employment are excluded from legal expenses insurance.

*A combined member of the YTK is a member of both the YTK Unemployment Fund and the YTK Worklife (formerly the YTK Association).

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