PAM’s Koivuniemi: Facility service sector employees are disappointed – negotiations on working conditions need to start in earnest
Niina Koivuniemi, Organisation Director at Service Union United PAM, says that workers are not impressed by the slow progress in collective bargaining in the real estate services sector. The employers’ federation has not come forward with a new date for negotiations and employees in the sector are getting anxious.
Service Union United PAM is currently attempting to negotiate a new collective agreement for minimum working conditions such as pay, working time and bonuses for employees in facility service sector. Progress in the negotiations between PAM and Real Estate Employers has been sluggish, however.
– We haven’t had that many meetings with our negotiating partner, Real Estate Employers, and the negotiations haven’t even properly got going. There are difficult matters to resolve, but tackling them is difficult in the current atmosphere. We are still waiting for the employers to come forward with a new date for negotiations, because at the last meeting it was not possible to make progress, Koivuniemi states.
The slow progress in negotiations in the facility service sector has left workers disappointed and anxious.
– Employees have been waiting impatiently for details of progress in the negotiations. We haven’t been able to tell them, and now it seems that the disappointment with the employers’ actions is leading to walkouts, Koivuniemi says.
– Employees in the workplace spoken loud and clear. The negotiations need to get going in earnest, Koivuniemi states.
Service Union United PAM has learned that at least in Oulu and Jyväskylä workers in the facility service sector have walked out of their jobs in protest at the actions of employers.
– The collective agreements are valid and there is industrial peace. But to me it is understandable that workers are protesting. For employees, the priority is to negotiate and get an agreement on working conditions. As they see it, employers are not showing willing in that respect. All employees are entitled to demand better working conditions, Koivuniemi states.
– PAM’s objective in the collective agreement negotiations is to narrow pay gaps. This is difficult to square when at the same time employers are stickling rigidly to their joint ceiling on pay rises. I hope a solution can be found once we manage to speak to the employers, Koivuniemi states.