Mediakunta is a cooperative of the Union of Journalists in Finland (UJF) for journalists and media professionals. We handle the billing and paperwork for you. We know the media field and can provide members with both UJF and co-worker support. We are a community.
Mediakunta bills clients for the work you have done and makes statutory deductions from your pay. The cooperative makes things easier for you, as you will not be burdened by entrepreneur’s obligations.
Mediakunta is a non-profit-making initiative. All members’ contributions are directly used to benefit the membership. Being a member of the cooperative improves your position on the job market as someone working freelance gigs. We can help with such things as setting proper rates of pay.
To join Mediakunta and operate as a member of it, you have to be a member of the UJF. We created Mediakunta because the UJF wants to help its members who do short-term work. All UJF members are welcome to join Mediakunta – whether journalists and media professionals or publishing editors, graphic designers, photographers and translators. You can also use our service if you are in an employment relationship or are a student or retired union member and are doing freelance gigs as a secondary occupation.
Mediakunta is a non-profit-making community of freelancers doing journalism and media gigs. The idea is that we work together and that freelancing is something to be proud of.
It costs €99 to join Mediakunta. As a new member you also make a capital share payment of 1€. The joining fee is to commit members to the work of the cooperative and is non-refundable.
The cooperative also levies a contribution from each billing to cover Mediakunta’s services. The amount of the contribution depends on your income. Mediakunta is non-profit-making community and all members’ contributions are directly used to benefit the membership. If a surplus is generated from invoicing, it can be redistributed to members as share capital interest proportionate to their billing.
The work you do counts as an employment relationship with Mediakunta. The Tax Administration’s pay and work remuneration guidelines state that work done through a cooperative is an employment relationship. Unemployment funds and employment and economic development offices decide on this independently.
Unemployment security depends on the interpretations used by the authorities, unemployment funds and the Social Insurance Institution. Members must check with the authorities about their status concerning unemployment.
It costs €99 to join Mediakunta. As a new member you also make a capital share payment of 1€. The joining fee is to commit members to the work of the cooperative and is non-refundable.
The cooperative also levies a contribution from each billing to cover Mediakunta’s services. The amount of the contribution depends on your income. Mediakunta is non-profit-making community and all members’ contributions are directly used to benefit the membership. If a surplus is generated from invoicing, it can be redistributed to members as share capital interest proportionate to their billing.
You will be employed via Mediakunta. In working for Mediakunta you will not be self-employed. However, Mediakunta does not guarantee that you will be entitled to earnings-related unemployment benefit. The unemployment fund and the Employment and Ministry for Employment and the Economy decide about this. Members must check with the authorities about their status concerning unemployment. Eligibility for unemployment benefit depends on the interpretative practices of the authorities, unemployment funds, and the Social Insurance Institution (Kela).
Mediakunta is an additional service that is available to UJF members. It is mainly intended for people who want to focus on their primary occupation of journalism and media work.
Financially speaking, it may be more rational to work as a self-employed person, if you want to clarify deductions and manage official obligations.
If you want to focus on your primary occupation and you want to exercise it in an employment relationship, it makes good financial sense to work through the cooperative.
Mediakunta markets members’ work outputs on its website and tries to find work for members. We pass on work offers to members.
We pay salaries twice a month: in the middle and in the end of the month, on business days.
9 January 2017.
We are looking into the scope for providing workspace.
No. VAT and the forthcoming entrepreneur’s deduction apply to self-employed people only. The Tax Administration classifies you as an employee in a working relationship via Mediakunta, and so you do not qualify for these tax benefits.
Work done through Mediakunta is employment, and so does not qualify for the traditional Finnish start-up funding.
Maternity allowance and sickness benefit are determined according to your pay, the same way as they are in other employment relationships. You can find out more from the Social Insurance Institution website.
Members can leave the cooperative through written notification to the Mediakunta board. The earliest you can leave Mediakunta is two months after joining it. Members must also notify Mediakunta if they leave the Union of Journalists in Finland (UJF).