New agreement signed in the property maintenance sector
The social partners in the property maintenance sector agreed in October 2005 on a new collective agreement which is to replace two of their current agreements. More scope was given for workplace level bargaining and the shop steward system was extended to cover the whole country.
Service Union United PAM (Palvelualojen ammattiliitto, PAM) and the employers’ Property Maintenance Association (Kiinteistöpalvelut) had for several years planned to combine together their collective agreements for cleaners and for other manual workers in property maintenance. Following negotiations which the union side described as arduous, the parties signed in October 2005 a new agreement that brings these groups of workers under one single agreement. The new employment conditions for the 40,000 or so affected workers will come into effect in the beginning of 2006, over a year before the current agreements were to expire. PAM and the Property Maintenance Association stated in their joint press release that the signing of the new agreement in the middle of the agreement periods was a demonstration of their good working relations.
The signatory parties argued that the combining together of the two current agreements was necessary to adapt to changes in the property maintenance sector; in larger firms in particular, the differences between cleaning tasks and other property maintenance work have blurred in recent years so combining the agreements together was deemed by the parties as a logical step to take. The new agreement, which has erga omnes applicability, is largely a fusion of elements from the prior agreements but it also includes some important changes. Pay issues, nonetheless, where completely left out with its scope; it was agreed that the current pay structures and levels will be valid until 2007 when these too will be fused together. Working time flexibility was somewhat increased in the new agreement at the wish of the employers. Moreover, the social partners at workplace level were delegated with increased bargaining powers in this field. Local agreements on working time are, however, only to be made between shop stewards and organised employers, the new rules stipulate. The current agreement, by contrast, allows individual workers and employers, organised or not, to bargain on these issues. To make the workplace level agreements possible, it was agreed as part of the deal that the network of shop stewards is to be extended to cover the whole of Finland. This was, according to PAM, the largest improvement of the new agreement because currently there are many areas without union representation. The country is to be divided into districts with one chief shop steward of PAM presiding in each of them. Additionally, in some of the larger towns there will also be 'ordinary' shop stewards in place. Both PAM and the Property Maintenance Association expressed their satisfaction with the agreed changes and with the new agreement in general.
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