Pam Magazine 16/13: Difficulties in filling the wage gap

Cleaners and property maintenance workers showed what they thought of the employers' attempts to renege on the agreed schedule for the earnings development programme. Those who marched out of their workplaces on 2 October included ISS employees in the Otaniemi region in Espoo and cleaners and property maintenance workers at depots in Turku and Salo. Even employees of HH-kiinteistöpalvelu in Tampere stopped working.

When the most recent PAM Magazine went to press, the facilities services sector had not even agreed on starting application negotiations according to the agreement for employment and growth. Kiinteistöpalvelut ry, the employers' organisation, refused to agree on increases according to the earnings development programme for next year by the deadline of 30 September.

The situation has not changed much since then, says Jyrki Sinkkonen, the Manager for Negotiations at PAM. Each party is determined not to yield.

– The employers wanted to extend the earnings development programme but failed to present any detailed plan. First there was talk of one or two years, now they are talking about several years.

The employee and employer organisation agreed on the earnings development programme in 2009. The purpose of this five-year programme is to help the facilities services sector catch up with the pay trend in the rest of the private service sector.

Scheduled wages have increased three times, at the beginning of 2011, 2012 and 2013, in accordance with the programme. The parties were due to agree on next year's rise this autumn – then a quandary set in.

– The employers' association justifies this with the general economic situation. But it has already been taken into account in the collective agreement, Sinkkonen points out.

– Besides, the employees are not asking for anything extra, only that which has already been agreed on.

When one compares the average increase in the income level of the last quarter of 2011 with the final quarter of 2012, cleaners' wage level has increased by 3.2 per cent, on average, according to wage statistics of the Confederation of Finnish Industries. The trend in real earnings has remained lower than increases in the earnings development programmes and in general.

– The true level of wages has not developed in accordance with the percentage rises. It has been weaker than in the security sector, for example, where the income level has increased by 4.2 per cent, Sinkkonen says.

– This can only mean that there have been personal supplements that the employer has been able to cut. In fact, it is complete fiction to claim that the combined effect of the increases in the collective agreement and the earnings development programme is five per cent. That is patently untrue.

Are businesses really doing as poorly as they claim? Sinkkonen states there are no co-determination negotiations related to the economic situation. Turnover in the industry grew by more than five per cent last year. Interim reports indicate that sales have decreased this year, but profitability has improved in some respects. Therefore, working hours have fallen more than sales, which means that the work has been done with fewer employees.

A report prepared by PAM on the industry reveals that ISS Palvelut, the largest employer, has had a harder time these past few years. SOL Palvelut and RTK-Palvelu Oy, on the other hand, have done well in recent years and increased their personnel. Where ISS saw a considerable decline in its operating profit last year and profitability dropped to an adequate level, RTK-Palvelu Oy grew its operating profit by more than 29 per cent and was highly profitable. Other large companies in the sector are doing rather well, generally speaking, as only N-Clean and Total Kiinteistöpalvelut have had problems with their profitability.

According to the report, productivity in the field has grown faster in the past six years than it did at the beginning of the 2000s. However, the trend in wages of both property maintenance workers and cleaners lags behind the average of all wage-earners.

If we and the employers cannot reach an agreement on how to proceed with the earnings development programme, the collective agreement will expire at the end of November.

– We have already terminated it. If no collective agreement can be made, we will go ahead with union-level negotiations. Still, I believe that common sense will triumph over high emotions, Sinkkonen says.

Katri Kangas