Principles of Operation

All subcontractors are required to join the Vastuugroup.fi service

Contractor’s Liability Act

YIT Corporation requires that all of its subcontractors join the Reliable Partner service maintained by Vastuu Group Oy, when its possible on the basis of the nationality of the company. Currently Finnish, Estonian, Swedish, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Polish companies can join the Reliable Partner service. We do not engage in any business with subcontractors who have not joined the service.

This requirement applies to the entire contracting chain and all subcontractors working on our sites.

NOTE! All subcontractors are also required to include an account of their business liability insurance in the Reliable Partner report provided by the Vastuu Group service. The sum insured and the deductible will be agreed upon on a case-by-case basis, but the sum insured being no less than EUR 1,000,000 and the deductible no more than EUR 1,500.

YIT Corporation requires that the report be in impeccable condition throughout the term of the contract.

The aforementioned requirements are not applicable to material suppliers.

Vastuu Group Oy 

Vastuugroup.fi is a register of information required under the Contractor's Liability Act aimed at companies. 

Log in to the Vastuugroup.fi service

Reliable Partner

The Reliable Partner service retrieves the information required under the Contractor's Liability Act from different registers on behalf of the supplier and the subcontractor and keeps the information up-to-date at all times. The contractor’s obligations and liability when work is contracted out are defined in the Contractor's Liability Act (1233/2006). 

Combating grey economy – replacement of a subcontractor in a subcontracting chain

A contractual chain refers to a case where a subcontractor who is in a contractual relationship with the contractor (YIT) further contracts out the contract, in whole or in part, as a subcontract to another subcontractor. At YIT, such a contractual chain is always subject to permission, and it must be agreed in advance in writing.

A contractual chain is often perceived as one of the characteristics of the grey economy, and in YIT’s experience, the subcontracting chain is where the largest problems emerge. The longer the chain, the larger the problems. A contractual chain is not entirely prohibited, but it must be duly justified and carried out in a controlled manner. Special competence may well be contracted out, for example, whereas a contractual chain of the same purchase entity without any added value is in most cases ill-founded.

Mid-term replacement of a foreign subcontractor in a subcontracting chain

A relatively new phenomenon is that a subcontractor in a chain of subcontracting agreements concluded with foreign companies, usually a company posting workers, is replaced by another company just prior to the expiry of the presumed deadline stipulated by the tax treaty between the countries concerned. The purpose of this is usually to avoid the formation of a permanent establishment in Finland, although the content of the contract remains the same or nearly the same even after the subcontractor has been replaced.

The tax authorities hold that a foreign contractor has a permanent establishment and, consequently, liability to pay taxes in Finland if the construction operations carried out in Finland last for more than 6 or 12 months. The required number of months varies by the tax treaty (country) concerned. For example, under the tax treaty between Finland and Estonia, any construction site that lasts longer than 6 months gives rise to a permanent establishment.

Finland has concluded a tax treaty with about 70 states. A time limit of 6 months has been agreed upon with countries such as Greece, Turkey and Estonia. With Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and all Nordic countries, a time limit of 12 months has been agreed upon. The tax treaty time limits must always be checked on a case-by-case basis.

In accordance with the principles of combating the grey economy and the spirit of the law, YIT has decided not to allow any mid-term replacement of a foreign subcontractor in a subcontracting chain without a duly justified reason. 

Posted workers from non-EU/EEA countries are required to have the right of residence and employment issued by the Finnish authorities

YIT strives to ensure fair working conditions for everyone working at our sites. For this reason, we are revising our policy regarding posted workers coming from outside the EU/EEA countries and Switzerland.

Starting from October 1, 2021, our new contract and subcontract agreements will require citizens of countries outside the EU/EEA countries and Switzerland to have a residence permit granting a right to work issued by Finland. Right to work – Finnish Immigration Service (migri.fi)
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At YIT, the use of posted workers from outside the EU/EEA countries and Switzerland will only be allowed in exceptional cases. Acceptable reasons for an exception do not include, for example, normal job resourcing or general construction work, cleaning and finishing tasks not requiring special expertise. Applications for exceptions must be submitted well in advance and in writing to YIT.  After 1.1.2022, workers from outside the EU/EEA countries will not be admitted to our sites unless they have a Finnish work permit, or a written exception from YIT.

This policy applies to both YIT’s direct contractual partners and the chain of subcontractors in all projects of YIT.

For further information, please contact Sami Rulja, Sustainability Manager, Supply Chain Management.

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