A partial settlement has been reached in a contract dispute in the private social services sector.
The deal covers private housing services for the elderly and disabled, mother-and-child homes and shelters, home services, and various social and health care organisations.
On Friday, a deal was reached by the Finnish Union of Practical Nurses (SuPer), the Union of Private Sector Professionals (Erto) and the Tehy social services sector alliance Salli, the Talentia Union of Professional Social Workers.
The employers are represented by the Finnish Association of Private Care Providers (Hali).
However the trade union JHL is not covered by the agreement.
"JHL did not have an opportunity to sign the negotiation result that was reached today. Therefore, the threat of the strikes that were announced earlier still exists," JHL President Håkan Ekström said in a press release on Friday.
"All ongoing collective actions will cease immediately. Work will continue as normal and the planned strike is cancelled," announced SuPer, the largest employee organisation in the sector, which employs around 72,000 employees.
SuPer: "A good solution"
Private social services staff have been working without a contract since the beginning of the year.
"We got a good solution and the strikes were called off. We can continue to improve salaries and other issues in the private sector," said SuPer chair Päivi Inberg.
She said that the deal is good for practical nurses in today’s difficult situation, and furthers prospects for closing the wage gap between the public and private sectors.
For those involved in the agreement, all ongoing industrial action will cease immediately, meaning work will continue as normal and the planned strike will be cancelled.
According to Inberg, there are no major changes in the current agreement compared to a settlement proposal offered two weeks ago.
Salaries will rise by 6.1 percent during the 28-month contract period. In comparison, under an agreement signed last spring in the public social services sector, salaries will increase by 7.37 percent over three years.
JHL not included in agreement
On Tuesday, the state labour mediator issued a new settlement proposal and asked the negotiating parties to respond it by Saturday.
However the separate agreement reached on Friday was not directly based on that proposal, according to Kati Virtanen, labour market director of Hali, which represents employers.
"We made an agreement with those with whom an agreement was possible at this point. It was important for us to get these large nursing organisations involved, because the majority of employees in the sector are nurses," Virtanen said.
According to JHL contract expert Siru Heromaa-Karjalainen, JHL was not offered this agreement. The union is still expected to respond to the national mediator's proposal on Saturday.
SuPer's Ingberg denied that there is a split among labour groups, but said that without the JHL, the other unions would have approved the agreement two weeks ago.
"There is certainly no split here. Everyone has had their own perspectives on reaching their goals and then achieving them in a slightly different way," Inberg said.
Virtanen said that the employers’ group Hali plans to hold talks with the JHL next week.
