Mediation proposal accepted by Service Union United PAM and Service Sector Employers Palta - new collective agreements to security guards
This morning, the mediation proposal made by the National Conciliator on Tuesday was accepted by both parties. This will also call off the industrial actions preannounced by PAM.
Signed between Service Union United PAM and Service Sector Employers Palta, the collective agreement of the security guarding sector has been on the negotiation table since last spring. The employees of the sector held a three-day strike towards the end of November. The National Conciliator made a decision to postpone the strike involving Securitas Oy, planned for Tuesday. A new strike was scheduled to take place tomorrow Friday at Prevent 360 Turvallisuuspalvelut Oy. PAM had also issued other strike warnings. All threatened strikes have now been called off as the mediation proposal was approved.
“The long and painful process is now finalised, and the security guarding sector employees have a new agreement on their employment terms. The employees had to go through hard times to get here. Special thanks go to all those participating in the strike”, PAM’s President Ann Selin comments on the result.
She finds that the mediation proposal is reasonable in meeting the PAM objectives for the negotiations, in other words, taking the special needs of the sector into consideration and finding a solution whereby the employees would feel motivated to commit to and stay in their jobs.
In line with the mediation proposal made for the security guarding sector, the new collective agreement is in force from 1 November 2018 to 30 April 2010.
The agreed pay increases in euro have been recorded as such in the pay scales. For example, the pay scales applied in the Helsinki metropolitan area will include monthly pay increases from 41 to 96 euro. The night supplement rose to 2.20 euro per hour, and the payment times of the supplements were also changed. The pay increases will enter into force on 1 January 2019.
Other agreements include a company-specific adjustment item which is 0.4% of the company’s total payroll sum for November. The objective is to take special circumstances and specialised competence into consideration. The adjustment item is given to all employees, if no consensus on the allocation can be found or if no negotiations on it can be conducted in companies with no shop steward.
“This item can be used locally so that it serves both the employee needs to target the increase and give the employer the possibility to take local circumstances into consideration. This crystallises the value of local agreeing”, Ann Selin adds.
Local agreement possibilities were increased in other ways as well.
“It is positive that we now have a recording in the collective agreement on a working group that will prepare a reform in the way the annual holiday pay is calculated”, she adds.
The agreement contains several textual amendments in clauses focusing on breaks for rests as well as per diems payable for cash-in-transit driver tasks. It is also possible to introduce substitute work but only subject to the employee’s consent and right to refuse it.
Link to the mediation proposal by the National Conciliator (in Finnish).