“The collective agreement is for all of us”
Mats Eriksson and Hannamari Oksa are the chairpersons of PAM’s hospitality agreement sector commission.
This week ahead are crucial for the future collective agreement for the hotel, restaurant and leisure industry. Shop stewards Mats Eriksson and Hannamari Oksa encourage everyone to get talking about employment terms at the workplace.
The collective agreement for the hotel, restaurant and leisure industry expires at the end of March. This means that the employment terms of all employees and supervisors are up for negotiation between PAM and MaRa.
The chairpersons of PAM’s hospitality agreement sector commission, Mats Eriksson and Hannamari Oksa, encourage everyone working in the sector to follow the upcoming negotiations closely. Employment terms don’t happen by themselves, they have to be re-negotiated each time. That’s why the support and involvement of everyone is needed.
Eriksson and Oksa say that the collective agreement negotiations have generated questions and interest at workplaces.
“There are expectations and people want to see improvements. These collective agreement negotiations are crucial for the future, Eriksson says.
Hannamari Oksa agrees with her colleague and confirms that there is intensive debate on the subject all over Finland.
“Now is the moment of truth. The settlement reached can affect the terms and wages in this sector in the future. The current situation isn’t acceptable”, Oksa adds.
Agreement sector commission at the core of the collective agreement negotiations
The agreement sector commission (site in finnish)is the preparatory and expert panel of PAM’s Executive Committee and is composed of members representing workplaces and members in the sector. The job of the agreement sector commission is to represent members’ views in the agreement process and improve employment terms in the sector.
PAM’s objectives for the collective agreement negotiations have been discussed by the hospitality agreement sector commission several times. The commission also plays a major role in approving or rejecting the agreement. It gives its own opinion to PAM’s Executive Committee on the negotiating result, after which PAM’s Executive Committee makes its decision.
“We are collective agreement interpreters. We listen to members’ wishes and our job is to turn these into objectives and the text of an agreement, says Erikson.
“Our job is to take the voice of members straight to the negotiators and to pass information between workplaces and the negotiators”, Oksa says and continues
“We can and we need to be contacted during the negotiations. The collective agreement negotiations affect us all and together we all affect the final outcome.”
The chairpersons of the agreement sector commission have a request for all employees:
“Follow the negotiations and talk about them with the people you work with. You can and you must talk about improving employment terms. And it pays to raise the subject head-on at workplaces and with employers.”
The story was first published in Finnish 10.3.2022
Text:: Minna Räsänen