Home » Membership » Manage your membership » Update your member information Update your member information – changes in your life may mean changes in your membership fee Keep your information up to date and notify PAM about any changes in your life situation. In some cases, changes in your life situation may mean changes in your membership fee. Manage your membership Join PAM Participate Transferring to PAM from another union Who can join PAM? Members share: Why I joined PAM E-services Paying membership fee Recommend membership Update your member information Resigning from the union From student to full member Local branches PAM for Couriers We can provide you with the best service if your information is up to date. The only information PAM gets automatically is a change of address. Any other information such as a new job, new name, profession, email or phone number must be updated by you personally. You should also inform the union of matters such as parental leave, studies, unemployment, or any sickness allowance or unemployment allowance you are receiving from Kela. They can all be reasons to grant you a break from membership fees. Below you will find more information about different changes in your life situation. You can notify PAM of any changes in PAM’s e-services or by calling the membership services. If you return to employment after an extended absence, please check your payslip to make sure your employer has remembered to correctly withhold your membership fees from your salary. Membership number When you join PAM as a member you receive an individual . The membership number will be sent to you as a text message immediately when your information has been regstered in PAM’s membership registry. Your membership number can be easily found on PAM’s e-service. You can also update your details using PAM’s e-service (log in with your membership number and password). Please notice, that the numbers stated in the distribution field on the magazine PAM.FI is not a membership number, but a number referring to the distribution code. Membership during retirement You can continue your union membership when you retire. Membership during retirement is free of charge. You can notify PAM of your retirement in PAM’s e-services or by calling the membership services. The PAM.fi magazine will be sent to retired members on request. If you are working while retired and receiving a salary, remember to pay membership fees based on your salary. This gives you the right to use PAM’s employment relationship hotline. Membership fees are only paid based on your salary, not your pension. Change of name or address You can conveniently change your member information (name, email, phone, sector, workplace, periods without salary) in PAM’s e-services. The union must always be notified of any changes to your name. PAM receives its members’ address information once per week from Posti’s address service, except for the addresses of members living in Åland. You can make a notification of change of address online on the websites of the Digital and Population Data Services Agency or Posti. It is important that we can reach you with our emails and text messages. It is a good idea to update the email addresses and phone numbers in your member information if they change. You should also check that they are entered correctly. Graduating from student to a full member When you graduate and start working or work while you are studying, it is a good idea to become a full member of the union. This gives you the right to use PAM’s employment relationship hotline and start accumulating the employment requirement (työssäoloehto), which is the period employed that you need to receive an earnings-based daily allowance (ansiosidonnainen päiväraha). Read more about graduating from student to a full member. Studies and breaks from membership fees If you are unemployed for an acceptable reason and are not receiving a salary, you have the right to a period without membership fees. Studying is an acceptable reason. Please immediately notify PAM of your studies in PAM’s e-services or by calling the membership services. The information is not provided to PAM automatically by the education institutions, so you must notify the union personally. If you receive a salary during your studies, you must pay the normal membership fees based on the salary. If you receive an allowance from the unemployment fund during your studies, membership fees are charged from the allowance. If you have forgotten to immediately notify PAM of a period without salary as soon as it started, contact PAM as soon as possible. You can make an agreement with PAM on how to bring your membership fees and membership up to date. Family leave and breaks from membership fees If you are unemployed for an acceptable reason and are not receiving a salary, you have the right to a period without membership fees. Family leave (perhevapaa) is considered an acceptable reason. If you are absent from paid work because of family leave, always notify PAM so that your membership will not be suspended. If you stop receiving a salary for any reason, you should not resign from the union but should instead notify the union of a period with no salary. You can notify PAM of family leave in PAM’s e-services or by calling the membership services. When you start a period of parental leave, your employer will pay you a salary for part of the time. Membership fees are paid normally for any salary paid this way. After the paid parental leave, you will enter unpaid parental leave, during which you will be paid a parental or family leave allowance. You do not need to pay membership fees based on them. If you have forgotten to immediately notify PAM of a period without a salary as soon as it started, contact PAM as soon as possible. You can make an agreement with PAM on how to bring your membership fees and membership up to date. Illness If you are unemployed for an acceptable reason and are not receiving a salary, you have the right to a period without membership fees. Kela’s sickness allowance is an acceptable reason for a break from membership fees. You can notify PAM of any sick leave in PAM’s e-services or by calling the membership services. Unemployment If you become unemployed, you must sign up as a jobseeker with the TE office (Te-toimisto) by your first day of unemployment. When two weeks have passed since the start of your unemployment, send an application for an earnings-related unemployment allowance (ansiopäiväraha) and any required attachments to the unemployment fund. Read more about earnings-related unemployment allowance applications on the unemployment fund’s website. If you are receiving an earnings-related unemployment allowance from the unemployment fund, the union will automatically be informed of your unemployment by the unemployment fund. You will not need to separately notify PAM of your unemployment in the e-services. Your membership fees will be charged from your earnings-related unemployment allowance. If you are not entitled to an earnings-related unemployment allowance, notify PAM of your unemployment in PAM’s e-services or by calling the membership services. If you are receiving unemployment allowance from Kela, you have the right to a break from membership fees. PAM and its partners offer many services to unemployed members. The services include free hygiene passport and occupational safety card training, as well as affordable subsidised holidays. Read more about PAM’s services for the unemployed. Working in another country If you start working in another country, you usually need to join a trade union and unemployment fund in the country you are working in. Before you start working in another country, contact PAM by calling the membership services or the PAM unemployment fund. When you return to Finland, immediately contact the trade union so that your unemployment security and membership can continue without interruption. New job, profession or employment relationship When you change jobs or professions or enter into a new fixed-term employment contract, remember to always notify PAM of the changes. You should also notify PAM if you are working for multiple employers at the same time. You can notify PAM of any new jobs in PAM’s e-services or by calling the membership services. If you change jobs or enter into a new fixed-term employment contract, remember to also make a new membership fee collection agreement. Read more about paying membership fees and collection agreements If you have a fixed-term employment contract, your collection agreement will be valid for the same period as the employment contract. However, if you make a new employment contract with the same employer within three months of your employment relationship ending, the collection of membership fees will continue automatically. Remember to check your payslip to make sure that your employer has withheld your trade union membership fees correctly. If you cannot make a collection agreement with your employer, you can pay the membership fees yourself in PAM’s e-services or order an e-invoice in your online bank by selecting “Palvelualojen ammattiliitto PAM” from the online bank’s e-invoice provider list. Read more about paying membership fees. Military and non-military service If you are unemployed for an acceptable reason and are not receiving a salary, you have the right to a period without membership fees. Military and non-military service are considered acceptable reasons. You can notify PAM of a period with no salary in PAM’s e-services or by calling the membership services. Remember to also notify PAM when you complete your service and return to work. You do not need to pay membership fees for the daily allowance paid during your service. If you receive any salary income during your service, pay the normal membership fees for it. If you have forgotten to immediately notify PAM of a period without a salary as soon as it started, contact PAM as soon as possible. You can make an agreement with PAM on how to bring your membership fees and membership up to date. Entering self-employment Starting a business or otherwise becoming self-employed can affect your social security in many ways. As a self-employed person, you can remain a member of PAM for a limited period, but you should also notify PAM of the change. If you become self-employed, you must notify PAM immediately, even if you are also employed in a salaried job in the private service sector. You can make the notification in PAM’s e-services. The union recommends that you join the Entrepreneur Fund (formerly the SYT fund) when you become self-employed. The SYT fund merged with the AYT fund at the start of 2020, later renaming to Yrittäjäkassa, the Unemployment Fund for Entrepreneurs – the Entrepreneur Fund for short. The Entrepreneur Fund can advise you further on the unemployment security of entrepreneurs. While self-employed, you may keep your PAM unemployment fund membership for a maximum of 18 months, known as extended protection (jälkisuoja). Your previous salary income determines your membership fees for the extended protection period. If you continue your self-employment after the extended protection period, your union and unemployment fund memberships will end. You may continue your union membership by notifying the trade union, but you may not continue your unemployment fund membership. The purpose of this extended protection is to ease the transition from employment to self-employment and vice versa. If you become unemployed during your extended protection period, you are entitled to receive an earnings-related allowance like any employee if you meet the condition of previous employment. If you are moving from self-employment to employment, the extended protection is valid until you meet the employment requirement for the unemployment fund (työssäoloehto).
