Tension mounting in collective bargaining round: existing agreements expiring
This week, once again, PAM will be in close consultations with employers’ federations on new collective agreements for a number of sectors. If no solutions can be found on new minimum conditions by Wednesday at the latest, we will enter a so-called state of non-agreement.
Negotiations will continue this week on new collective agreements in many of PAM’s sectors between PAM and the employers’ federations. Collective agreements set out by sector the minimum conditions, including pay, working time, sick pay, compensation for weekday public holidays etc., that employers must apply to all their employees.
The pace of negotiations has been stepped up in recent weeks. In many sectors, for example retail, hospitality and facilities services, the existing collective agreements will expire at the turn of the month, i.e. on Wednesday. If there are no new agreements by then, we will enter a so-called state of non-agreement.
Then the conditions of the old agreements will still apply in workplaces, but with the possibility of industrial action to speed up the negotiations. It is usual for the negotiations to continue after the expiry of the previous agreements.
On Monday 29 January there will be negotiations on working conditions in the hospitality sector with the employers’ association MaRa. In the morning negotiations continued in the pharmacy sector, and in the afternoon it is the turn of the agreement for technical staff at the Finnish National Theatre.
On Tuesday afternoon 30 January collective agreement negotiations will continue with the Finnish Commerce Federation.
On Wednesday 31 January it will be the turn of negotiations in the call centre sector and negotiations on the so-called Palta framework agreement, which affects several sectors with smaller numbers of employees. As the name suggests, the negotiations will be conducted with the employers’ association Palta.
PAM’s Executive Committee will also meet on Wednesday, and may approve negotiating outcomes, if there are any, or if necessary set out future steps to be taken.
On Thursday 1 February further negotiations are planned for the National Theatre agreement and on Friday 2 February possibly for the pharmacy sector agreement. With tension mounting in the negotiations, some re-scheduling is possible. PAM is also waiting for the Real Estate Employers to come forward with a date for negotiations in the facilities service sector. There were no negotiations as such at last Friday’s meeting.
The collective bargaining round is being conducted by sector, i.e. it is the employees’ and employers’ associations negotiating and not the confederations. In the negotiations both PAM’s and the employers’ negotiators set out their own objectives, and based on these a solution is sought for the new collective agreement period.