Finnish hockey coaches are worried about the insecurity of their employment relationships.
Coaches’ employment contracts are often fixed-term in principle, for example for one or two seasons. They may not even last until the end of the agreed period.
– Even fixed-term contracts are more or less mutually agreed upon, states the executive director of the Association of Professional Coaches of Finland (SAVAL), which protects the interests of professional coaches Raino Nieminen.
For example, in Finland’s highest league level in the SM league, every season a head coach gets fired.
According to SAVAL, the employment contracts in the industry are currently very varied.
Raino Nieminen characterizes that there are almost as many working contract templates for head coaches in use as there are head coaches in the SM league.
– It is not unusual that we even come across illegal entries in employment contracts, says SAVAL’s labor relations expert Heikki Kähkönen.
According to Kähkönen, there are violations of the law, for example, in the grounds on which an employment relationship can be terminated prematurely. There are also differences “in very basic matters.”
– The manner in which salary determination, benefits, and insurance are agreed varies enormously, Kähkönen describes.
Ice hockey coach Tommi Niemelä explains in a video why he thinks a common contract model is needed.
According to Nieminen, issues are recorded in some contracts so unclearly that the contracting parties themselves do not know what they have agreed on.
Organized professional coaches now want to change the situation.
SAVAL presented the new, common contract basis for ice hockey coaches in May in connection with the World Cup in the Czech Republic to SM league and Mestis coaches. At the same time, the coaches presented their own views on the bottom.
An employment contract template is now being finalized, which would improve and unify the position of hockey coaches in working life.
The employment contract model must also be suitable for the employer. Therefore, the coaches’ interests supervision still has to negotiate with the SM league, Mesti and the Finnish Ice Hockey Federation.
According to Heikki Kähkönen, one of the most important questions in the new contract model is how to act when the coach is no longer behind the bench coaching.
Many ways to kick a coach out
Due to the varied contract models, getting “fired” can mean very different things to the league coach depending on the case.
– There are alternatives from terminating the entire employment relationship to being released from the work obligation or changing the job description, SAVAL’s employment relations expert Heikki Kähkönen.
So it could have been the case that being fired from the position of head coach has meant the end of the entire employment relationship, or that the head coach has raised his salary without a work obligation, or that he has been transferred to other positions in the organization.
Whether the employment relationship ends or only the work obligation affects the coach’s situation if he applies for a new job.
There is no precise wording of the common line regarding the work obligation and dismissal yet.
According to Kähkönen, the situation of the head coaches of the major leagues who are the most in the public eye may be different from that of assistant coaches or coaches of U18 or U20 junior teams.
– For some, it is more suitable for the employment relationship to continue as such, and for others it may be more suitable that as soon as the work obligation ends, the employment relationship would also end. The purpose of this is now to build a contract condition that would best serve coaches in different situations.
According to Kähkönen, the formatting of the entry also involves legal challenges related to the Employment Contracts Act.
Watch the video for Tommi Niemelä’s view of what kicks the coach should follow and what not.
Ice hockey coach Tommi Niemelän personal opinion is clear.
As part-time workers, coaches must be able to trust that the agreed time will be compensated.
– If the work task stated in the employment contract is no longer allowed to be done, then we sit at home and the salary is paid [sopimuksen] until the end.
Who is the head coach’s boss?
In the new contract model, it would be assumed that the employer could not transfer the head coach or, as a rule, any other coach to other positions.
SAVAL has seen agreements that would in principle have allowed the head coach of the SM league to be transferred to coach the women’s team of the same organization.
We want to get rid of the formulation of work tasks as “and all other tasks assigned by the employer”.
Kähkönen says that in the future contract model, the definition of the work task is wanted to be “very, very precise”.
A precise definition of who is the head coach’s predecessor, who exercises the employer’s directorate or work management right, is also coming to the contract.
– It puts coaches in a challenging situation in terms of occupational health and safety, when work management does not necessarily always come from a close supervisor or it is a little unclear who exercises the employer’s right of direction in everyday life, says Kähkönen.
According to Kähkönen, the question has come up more and more recently. According to him, this is influenced by the fact that the clubs are internally in a situation of change, and there is no established practice for the coach’s predecessor.
Practices also vary between clubs.
– Quite often the situation is that there is a CEO and a sports director, and there may be other intermediate gates as well.
The goal is that at least all coaches belonging to the trade union would use this joint employment agreement template, which is now being finalized.
– The more united the coaching staff is behind this, the stronger we will be able to act as a credible negotiating partner, says Heikki Kähkönen.