Membership

The current membership card is valid from 2022 to 2024. For members who are under 70 years of age, the membership card is also an insurance card that includes accident and travel insurance. JHL has insured its members with Turva Mutual Insurance Company. In order for the card to be valid, your membership and membership fee payments must be up to date.

After the membership has been registered in the membership register, the membership card will be posted to new members. The card will be accompanied by a brochure on membership benefits and information about membership.

In the beginning of 2025 we will move completely to mobile membership cards and plastic membership cards will no longer be sent to members. Read more!

Order a new card either in myJHL or by contacting the Membership Service. The card supplier will send you the card you ordered in approximately two weeks. A new membership card is not sent out if the member switches to another local branch or if the member’s name changes.

You can order the mobile membership card through myJHL. You will receive a text message to your phone. The message includes a link for downloading the card. Here’s what to do after that:

1. Click on the activation link that you received by text message. The link will open an app called MagMa Lompakko, which is where you’ll find JHL’s mobile membership card. MagMa Lompakko is a PWA mobile app, a website that can be used like an app. Download it through the link in the text message, not from an app store.
2. When you open MagMa Lompakko for the first time, you must register as a service user. Create a username and password for yourself.

After you’ve registered in the MagMa Lompakko app, our membership card will be downloaded automatically.

For questions and answers related to MagMa Lompakko, visit the homepage of the card supplier CardPlus Oy (in Finnish).

When it comes to members who have not prohibited the disclosure of their name and address information, Posti (Finnish Post) will forward their changed details automatically to JHL. Contact information is updated automatically only for mainland Finland. If you have prohibited the disclosure of your address information, notify JHL’s Membership Service of your new address.

To update your contact information, go to myJHL or contact the Membership Service. If your name changes, JHL will not send you a new membership card.

Are you transitioning from employee to student? Congratulations on your acceptance to school! As a full-time student, you’re exempted from paying the union membership fee if you have no earned income or the right to benefits paid by the unemployment fund. Notify of your right to payment exemption in myJHL or by contacting the Membership Service.

If you work during your studies, you have to pay a membership fee to the trade union and unemployment fund from your salary.

In case you directly joined as a student member, you’re exempted from paying the trade union membership fee for the notified duration of your studies. Your trade union membership will continue automatically after the graduation date that you indicated. Also remember to join the unemployment fund when you start working during your studies or after them!

More information: young people and students

During your armed military service or civil service, you do not have to pay the trade union membership fee. Notify of your right to payment exemption in myJHL or by contacting the Membership Service. 

During unpaid sick leave, you do not have to pay the membership fee. Notify of your right to payment exemption in myJHL or by contacting the Membership Service.

Check whether you should pay the minimum membership fee, or whether you have the right to be exempted from paying the membership fee. If you work for another employer during your unpaid leave, you have to pay the membership fee.

During unpaid family leave, you are exempted from paying the membership fee. Notify of your right to payment exemption in myJHL or by contacting the Membership Service.

When you start a new job, make sure your membership fees stay up to date. To pay the membership fee, either authorise your employer to collect it directly from your salary, or pay it yourself.

If you start a new job, notify our Membership Service. At the same time, you can order a pre-filled membership fee collection agreement. You can also print out the collection agreement.

At the same time, you can switch to another local branch if necessary, because local interests are promoted in local branches. Your local branch is determined according to your employer, the collective agreement of your workplace, and the city or town where you live.

If you pay your membership fee yourself, you can update your employment information either in myJHL or while ordering payment references from our Membership Service.

You do not have to pay the membership fee if you are registered as a job seeker with the TE Office, you receive labour market subsidy or basic unemployment allowance, and you have no taxable earned income. Register as an unemployed job seeker with your local TE Office, at the latest on the first day of your unemployment or layoff. Fill in your daily allowance application, sign it, and send the application and its attachments to the Public and Welfare Sectors’ Unemployment Fund. The easiest way to do it is through the unemployment fund’s Ewertti eAsiointi service.

Notify of your right to payment exemption in myJHL or by contacting the Membership Service. Notify of the membership fee exemption retroactively, in three-month periods. For example: If your unemployment starts on 1 January and continues until the end of March, notify JHL right at the beginning of April of your exemption from the membership fee in January-March.

You have to pay the membership fee during your job alteration leave. The Public and Welfare Sectors’ Unemployment Fund will collect the membership fee automatically from the job alteration compensation paid by it. If Kela pays your job alteration compensation, you must pay the minimum membership fee. To pay the minimum membership fee, order payment references from our Membership Service. For more information about job alteration compensation (in Finnish), go to the unemployment fund’s website.

If you are going on pension, notify the Membership Service, because JHL will not get the information from anywhere else. At the same time, let us know whether you wish to remain a member of both the trade union and unemployment fund. If you have been granted a full pension, you are not entitled to unemployment fund services anymore. In this case, we recommend that you resign from the unemployment fund.

For retired members under 70 years of age, the membership fee is EUR 8 for a full calendar month, which amounts to EUR 96 a year. The membership fee is paid 4 times a year, one instalment is EUR 24. By paying the membership fee for retired members under 70 years of age, you will be entitled to all union membership benefits, even after you go on pension.

The membership fee for retired members who have turned 70 is EUR 5 for a full calendar month, which amounts to EUR 60 a year. By paying the membership fee for retired members who have turned 70, you will be entitled to all other union membership benefits except for travel insurance and leisure-time accident insurance for permanent harm.

To pay the membership fee, order payment reference numbers from our Membership Service.

You do not have to pay the membership fee for your part-time pension. You will only pay the membership fee for taxable earned income from a part-time job. If you’re on part-time pension without doing paid work, contact the Membership Service.

As a carer you pay the minimum membership fee, which is EUR 8 per month. It is paid every quarter of a year (EUR 24 at a time). To pay the minimum membership fee, order payment references from the Membership Service. If you work in addition to being a carer, the membership fee will be based only on your taxable earned income.

If you go abroad without having been admitted to a school or without having a job, you will pay the minimum membership fee. The minimum membership fee is EUR 8 per month. Before you leave, check with the unemployment fund to see if your employment security will be in force. Please notify our Membership Service if you are going to be living abroad.

If you start a business, notify the Membership Service. Independent entrepreneurs working in the sectors of the trade union can be JHL members. They are full-time or part-time entrepreneurs who work without employees. For entrepreneurs, the membership fee is EUR 20 per month.

To see if your unemployment security is in force, check with the unemployment fund. Entrepreneurs can only be members of a trade union unemployment fund for a certain period of post-cover. The unemployment fund for entrepreneurs is called the Entrepreneur Fund.

Notify the Membership Service of your resignation. You have to resign in writing. Let us know whether you wish to resign from both the trade union and unemployment fund, or only the other one. The resignation date is the date notified by the member in advance, or the sending date of the electronic notification. It is not possible to resign retroactively. If you continue with the same employer after your resignation, send the cancellation form for membership fee collection (in Finnish) to your employer’s payroll administration.

Check with your new trade union whether you can authorise it to file a resignation notification on your behalf, or whether you have to do it yourself. It is the member’s responsibility to make sure everything is okay with their membership until the resignation date.