Intense negotiations in the commercial and facilities services sectors – more agreements expiring at the end of this month
The coming week will be a busy one for collective bargaining in the commercial and facilities services sectors. Company-specific agreements are also under development.
This week, PAM will negotiate on terms of employment for seven of its sectors with three different employer unions. The intensity of the negotiations is increasing, with more and more sessions scheduled leading to the end of this month when the collective agreements for six sectors are set to expire.
Collective agreement negotiations for the commercial sector will resume on Wednesday 22 January and continue on the following Friday. Committees have been set up in the sector to discuss local agreements and the position of shop stewards. The facilities services sector will have its third negotiation session on Tuesday 21 January, and the following session has been scheduled for Thursday 23 January.
Negotiations for the golf sector launch on Monday 20 January. Customer service and telemarketing negotiates on Friday.
The week will also feature work on company-specific agreements. The collective agreement for Veikkaus will be discussed on Tuesday, the one for Alko on Thursday, and the agreement for technical staff at the Finnish National Opera on Friday.
In addition, the week has three scheduled agreement sector commission meetings where shop stewards and active union members discuss the negotiation situation and the future of the sector. The agreement sector commission for cinemas will meet on Monday, the one for facilities services on Tuesday and the one for the commercial sector on Thursday.
Each sector has its own specific issues, but one common goal is to negotiate for the removal of the “kiky hours”, or the additional 24 hours of work for no pay set in the “competitiveness pact”. At this stage, all employees can support the collective bargaining by signing the petition to abolish the kiky hours. The petition can be found here.