Finland
Negotiations are underway in both the state and municipal sectors where the collective agreements expire at the end of January. In the municipal sector JHL, the main public sector union wants, the minimum pay rate in the collective agreement to be raised to €1,500 per month and family leave to be improved. JHL also aims to develop the status of employees in atypical employment relations and the rights of safety representatives.
Read more at > JHL (EN)
And at > JHL (EN)
Excessive workloads and unpredictable hours will feature prominently in the childcare sector negotiations that began on 8 November. With a slogan that "we're not jacks of all trades" the FNV trade union highlighted the problem that childcare workers were overburdened with cleaning, administrative and other tasks rather than child care itself. The union will be looking for restrictions on the extent to which employers can ask childcare workers to change their working time at short notice. The main pay claim will be for a 3.5% pay rise for the 80000 workers in the sector.
Collective bargaining in the private waste sector was due to begin on 21 August. The agreement covers 60,000 workers and ver.di is concerned that the employers want to reduce pay rates. Although the employers have not yet made public their initial negotiating position, the union believes that their main concern will be competition with firms that are not covered by the industry agreement. According to ver.di the BDE employers' organisation wants to get more employers signed up to the industry agreement and it thinks that the best way to do this is to reduce pay rates. This will mean pressure
The FNV-Abvakabo public services union has begun negotiations covering 460,000 workers in the care and nursing home sector. The union is looking for a 1.5% increase plus improvements to work-life balance. Abavakabo believes working time is a key issue for care sector employees and who want hours to better suit their personal circumstances and an end to any zero-hours contracts. The union demands were formulated following a survey of members at the end of last year. The previous collective agreement expired on 28 February. [Read more at > FNV-Abvakabo (NL)->http://www.abvakabofnv.nl/nieuws
