Negotiations on collective agreements continue - agreements are about minimum conditions to be applied at work
PAM is currently negotiating collective agreements in several sectors with federations representing employers. Collective agreements set out, by sector, conditions including pay, working time, sick pay, compensation for weekday public holidays and other minimum conditions that employers must apply to all their employees.
PAM has met employers’ federations representing companies in different sectors several times last week. In the collective agreement negotiations both PAM’s and the employers’ negotiators put forward their own objectives for the collective agreements, after which a solution is sought for the duration of the new agreement period. These proposals can be about pay, bonuses and working time, where both parties often have their own views, and, depending on the subject, these can differ.
This week collective agreement negotiations will continue on working conditions for employees and supervisors in the hospitality sector on Monday 22 January. Working conditions in the retail sector will next be up for discussion between the parties on Thursday 25 January. Negotiations on collective agreements for facilities services workers will be continued, and the parties will next meet on Friday 26 January.
Negotiations will also continue on other collective agreements. The collective agreement for pharmacy employees, which applies to e.g. pharmaceutical employees, pharmaceutical technicians, technical employees, pharmaceutical assistants, office workers and pharmacies’ own cleaners will be before the negotiators on Tuesday 23 January. On Thursday 25 January pay in the cinema sector will be discussed.
The collective agreement for Avecra train service staff will also be discussed this week in the agreement sector commission, which will meet on Tuesday 22 January. The agreement sector commission is PAM’s own preparatory and expert group and normally comprises shop stewards in the sector and activists from around Finland.
What is in progress is a union-specific collective bargaining round, i.e. it is employee and employer associations negotiating pay rises and employment conditions, and not the central organisations.