The UJF has submitted its position to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment concerning the government’s draft amendment to the unemployment benefit act. The union proposes a change to the draft concerning the provision of start-up grants. The current draft states that while self-employed people can receive start-up grants after four months on unemployment benefit, they must have been conducting their enterprise activity or self-employment for four months as a secondary occupation. The UJF’s position is that start-up grants should be available regardless of whether enterprise activity of self-employment had been a primary or secondary occupation. “The idea of reforming the legislation has been that one can attempt enterprise activity for four months and that the primary or secondary nature of the work would not be assessed with the cessation of unemployment benefit”, said the head of the union’s advocacy work Petri Savolainen. “But according to the government’s draft, the primary or secondary nature of the work would be assessed when deciding on start-up grants. Then the extent of the work would count, which would constitute a risk for those attempting enterprise activity. The view of the Union of Journalists in Finland is that primary and secondary activity should not be assessed during that four-month period, so that enterprise activity or being self-employed could be tried out without incentive traps.