Pam Magazine 6/2014: Outsourcing causing dismay in Turku

A total shock.” This is how one of the housekeepers describes the employees' feelings at the information event on 22 April. The subject discussed at the event was the outsourcing of the housekeeping at Hamburger Börs, Seurahuone and Radisson Blu Marina Palace to a cleaning company. This was a disappointment to the employees at the three hotels, because these hotels and the staff were supposed take special pride in having their own housekeeping.

Only 8 months earlier in an extensive feature in Pam Magazine, Tuija Suominen-Åkerlund, Director of the Hotel Group, TOK, had said that internal housekeeping was the best method of achieving profitability and good service in particular.

Within one week from the information session, the housekeepers were transferred as existing employees to the service of a cleaning company from Turku that operates in close to 60 hotels. The work uniform remained the same.

“They promised to pay the same wages, but as employees, we were also concerned that we'd lose the employee benefits with TOK,” says a housekeeper, who does not wish to disclose a name or photo. The employees have lost their discounts at the shops of the regional cooperative.

Mikko Eskelinen, Director of Business Operations, TOK, says now that both ways of arranging housekeeping are still equally good, but TOK wanted to focus on its core business by outsourcing the housekeeping.

The hotels take care of the reception, restaurants and some of the sales services themselves. The outsourced support activities include the guards and other security services, programme production, DJ services, and now also housekeeping.

According to Eskelinen, SOK Corporation, an umbrella company of the regional cooperatives, took care of the negotiations during the tender procedure on behalf of the regional cooperatives. The negotiations lasted for close to two years. Each regional cooperative decides for itself whether it wants to use the subcontractor or not.

The first hotel housekeeper meeting in the history of PAM were held on 23–24 April in Tampere, with roughly forty housekeepers as participants. At the event, it was found that TOK's case is not unique.

Usually, there are at least two reasons why the housekeepers are worried, if housekeeping is outsourced from the hotel to a cleaning company. It is believed that the pace of work is more hectic at cleaning companies.

On the other hand, the change in collective agreements that often happens after a transition period is also a cause for concern. The collective agreement for the hotel, restaurant and leisure industry applies to the housekeepers at hotels, while the collective agreement for the facilities services sector is applied to those employed by cleaning companies. Both agreements are made by PAM.

According to Rauno Nurmi, the Managing Director of N-Clean, there used to be a difference in the pace of work at cleaning companies and hotels, but at the moment, the pace of work is “very similar”. Cleaning takes as long as it takes.

“At N-Clean, the goal is to clean a new basic room in 15–20 minutes,” Nurmi says. 

The housekeeper interviewed says that at TOK, the goal was to clean “three rooms per hour”, meaning that there were 20 minutes per new room.

According to Nurmi, today there are no great differences between the collective agreements for the employees. 

“The collective agreement for the facilities services sector has been breaching the gap that still existed 10 years ago,” says Nurmi.

PAM and the Finnish Hospitality Association MaRa that represents the employers do not have statistics on how much of the housekeeping is done by cleaning companies. According to Nurmi, the housekeeping is mainly carried out by the hotel itself in small hotels with 10–20 rooms.

“In large hotels, cleaning companies do two thirds of the work,” Nurmi estimates.

However, the current does flow the other way, too. In March, Naantali Spa Hotel returned the housekeepers to its own service from SOL Palvelut.

 Marja Ikkala