Instructions for employers concerning criminal records

This page contains instructions for employers and the authorities. The instructions concern extracts issued for working with children, as well as elderly and disabled.

In certain cases, employers have the right or obligation to request an employee or a private social or health care service provider to present a criminal records extract.

Criminal record data are confidential and may only be disclosed for the purposes laid down in the Criminal Records Act (770/1993, section 3) . Employers only have lawful grounds for checking their employee’s criminal records extract in tasks related to working with children, the elderly or disabled.

The criminal records extract is ordered by applicant himself or herself, and the employer does not have the right to order the extract on his or her behalf. When applying for an extract from the criminal record, the employee must report to the Legal Register Centre accurate and truthful information on the application. Incomplete information will delay the processing of the application.

Employer! Remember these things

You can check an employee’s criminal record if they work with children or the elderly and disabled. Extracts from the criminal records are not disclosed for the purposes of invitations to tender, procurement contracts, service purchase agreements or service vouchers. These situations do not involve an employment relationship.
You may only request an extract from the criminal records from an employee at the start of the job, i.e. at the time of recruitment, or if the nature of the job changes for a particular client group. For example, if the employee used to look after children but now works with older people.
The extract from the criminal records is valid for six months. An employer cannot require the employee to get a new extract every six months when the extract expires. The extract presented at the beginning of the employment relationship is sufficient.

The employer must mention in the job advertisement that the person selected for the position must present a criminal record extract. This applies only to the selected candidate, as the criminal record extract is not provided for job applications. The extract is also not intended for repeated background checks.

The criminal record extract presented to the employer must not be older than six months and must be promptly returned to the employee.

The employer may not copy or otherwise store the employee’s criminal record extract, but may only make a note of the date of the extract and that it has been presented.

A conviction in the criminal record does not mean a prohibition on employment, appointment, or activity. The suitability of the job applicant is always at the discretion of the employer.

When can an employer require a criminal record extract for working with children?

A criminal records extract may be requested from a person who is selected for the first time for an employment or public service relationship, which materially and permanently involves working with children. The work may involve raising, teaching, care or other care of a minor without the guardian’s presence or other work in personal interaction with the minor. The extract may also be required when a person is given these tasks for the first time (Act on Checking the Criminal Background of Persons Working With Children 504/2002, sections 2 and 3 )

Grounds for disclosing the extract for working with children

In order for the extract to be disclosed, the conditions on the permanent nature and materiality of the work must be met.

The personnel groups to which the criminal background check procedure applies are:

day care and education staff,
care and upbringing staff in institutional child welfare care and the care and upbringing staff in private family-type homes,
teaching staff in pre-school education, primary education, general upper secondary education and upper secondary vocational education,
guidance personnel in the youth work sector
parts of the guidance staff of sports services,
nursing staff in the paediatric wards, child psychiatric wards and adolescent psychiatric wards in hospitals,
technical or administrative staff of a child welfare institution or boarding school; and
social workers and psychologists in schools and child welfare institutions.

In addition, a criminal records extract of a person working with children may also be disclosed for the following purposes:

morning and afternoon activities (service organiser/service procurement),
family care in accordance with the Family Care Act,
service position for a person performing their non-military service duty,
work try-out,
provision of private social services and
provision of private health services.

In which cases will the extract not be disclosed for working with children?

The extract will not be disclosed if the conditions for the permanent nature and materiality of the work are not met and contact with a minor is occasional or has the nature of reception activities.

Such cases include:

physician’s appointments,
work of a social worker working in an agency
work in a child guidance clinic and family guidance centre,
child health clinic activities and
work in libraries.

In these situations, the child is also often accompanied with their parents when meeting the employee.

Entrepreneurs

The possible criminal background of those working with children, the elderly or disabled is not investigated in situations where the work takes place outside a public-service or contractual employment relationship. In this case, the work may take place, for example, as a private entrepreneur under the freedom of occupation.

The extract is not disclosed for the purposes of a tendering process or signing a contract for the purchase of services. The criminal background of a person acting as a private entrepreneur is checked in connection with the permit or notification procedure by the Regional State Administrative Agency, the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health (Valvira) or the wellbeing services county. For service purchase agreements, the client is not entitled to check the criminal records.

Taxi entrepreneurs and vehicle drivers

If the duties of an employed driver include work of permanent and essential nature with children, the entrepreneur acting as an employer is also obliged to check the employee’s criminal records extract. In other words, a driver in an employment relationship can obtain criminal records extracts of those working with children only when performing regular school transport.

A criminal records extract is not disclosed for ordinary bus transports where the same children are not repeatedly met without the presence of their guardians. The criminal records extract of those working with the elderly or disabled is not granted to taxi drivers, since the employer, i.e. the transport entrepreneur, is not a service provider in the healthcare and social welfare sector.

Note! Taxi entrepreneurs cannot order a criminal records extract concerning themselves. The taxi driver’s register data is checked by the licensing authority issuing the transport licence, i.e. the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom.

Gig work

A criminal records extract of persons working with children, the elderly or disabled may be disclosed for gig work if a new employment contract is drawn up for each gig agreed upon. Otherwise, the criminal records extract is checked on a one-off basis when the person is first admitted or appointed to an employment or public service relationship, or when the person is first given tasks that are permanently and essentially related to children, the elderly or disabled.