Historic rule change approved

Topics

• Income security
• Job seeking
• Law change
• Membership
• Unemployment
• YTK

The extra session of the YTK Unemployment Fund board approved an amendment to the Fund’s rules to allow it to support the employment of its members.

A government proposal is currently before Parliament which, if implemented, will allow unemployment funds to support the employment of their members. Under the current law, the role of the unemployment fund is to provide income support and any other activity is expressly prohibited.

We have long seen an opportunity to support our members more widely. Unemployed members in particular have a natural link with us, which would make it easy, for example, to target job-search assistance to them at the beginning of their unemployment or even before. Since 2017, we have been actively promoting the message that it would be smart to involve unemployment funds in employment support. Now our idea is becoming a reality.

Rule change

An unemployment fund must mention in its statutes the promotion of employment of its members. Amendments to the statutes are decided at the general meeting of the fund, at which the members exercise their voting rights. On Friday 31 May 2024, the Extraordinary General Meeting of the YTK Unemployment Fund approved a change to the rules which will add the possibility of supporting the employment of its members to the Fund’s tasks.

The new rules will be subject to review and approval by the Financial Supervisory Authority. The amendment is also conditional on future legislative changes. The statutory amendment will only enter into force once the relevant law has been approved by Parliament.

New services

As the law is not yet in force, we have not been able to develop new services directly. Once the law is adopted, we will be able to start developing new services with full force. Our aim is to make the first services available and usable as soon as possible.