Espoo to reward early childhood education employees with a one-time compensation of €100

Espoo’s Growth and Learning Sector has decided to reward the staff of the early childhood education units with a one-time compensation of €100 to be paid near the end of the year. The compensation will be paid to Espoo’s Finnish and Swedish Early Childhood Education staff in day-care centres, family day-care, group family day-care centres and open early childhood education, i.e. residents’ parks and clubs.

The one-time compensation will be paid to all employees who work in the early childhood education units and have been continuously employed by the city for at least two months by the beginning of November. The compensation will not be paid to administrative staff or employees who are on an extended absence.

The COVID-19 pandemic and staff availability challenges have put early childhood education staff under pressure in recent years. Espoo has also experienced difficulties in finding sufficient staff for early childhood education. After COVID-19 started to spread in Finland in spring 2020, the situation became even more difficult, as staff members were ill and, in the early days of the pandemic, also extensively quarantined.

“In the difficult situation, the employees have been flexible, stretched themselves and shown great commitment and perseverance. As an employer, we want to show our appreciation for the work that our employees have done, even in challenging circumstances, and reward them for this work,” says Harri Rinta-aho, Deputy Mayor for Growth and Learning at the City of Espoo.

Espoo did not overcome the challenging situation unscathed, though, and some early childhood education units sometimes had to restrict their opening hours or make other arrangements to ensure that they could continue their activities. According to Virpi Mattila, Director of Finnish Early Childhood Education, the situation could have been significantly more difficult, but the staff’s tenacity and ability to pull together have saved many situations.

“I have been very impressed by the dedication, high work ethic and professional pride that our early childhood education staff have shown in their work with the children every single day, even though it hasn’t always been easy. I can say with my hand on my heart that without them, we wouldn’t have done so well in the difficult situation. Every employee deserves recognition for this, which is why we want to reward our staff now,” Mattila says.

The one-time compensation is a small gesture with which the city wants to express to the staff how much it appreciates their efforts.

“Of course, the challenges are not over yet, and we still have a lot of work to do to stabilise our staffing situation in early childhood education. We are constantly looking for new ways of doing this, and many measures have already been introduced. However, we wouldn’t have made it this far without a significant contribution from our staff, and I’d like to express my warm thanks for that,” says Barbro Högström, Director of Swedish Education and Cultural Services.