Personal assistant, check your pay!
A change in the applicability of the collective agreement may mean that you are entitled to additional pay retroactively.
The national collective agreement for personal assistants (heta-tes), which is negotiated by JHL, became generally applicable in autumn 2025. This decision secures better terms and conditions of employment and position in the labour market for thousands of personal assistants.
The change became effective retroactively from the start date of the current collective agreement period, 1 May 2025. The retroactive nature of the decision can mean that some personal assistants may be entitled to more pay since May.
There are thousands of personal assistants who may be entitled to additional pay retroactively.
JHL recommends that those personal assistants who were not previously covered by heta-tes but became covered when the collective agreement became generally applicable should request their employer to clarify how this impacts their pay. When making the request, they should also mention that if it turns out that the pay needs to be revised, the employee should receive a clarification of the reasons for the revision and a payment schedule.
We also recommend checking that you have been assigned in the correct pay group, as well as your pay for annual leave and holiday bonus, because you may also be entitled to additional money for these retroactively.
Ask for help
There are thousands of personal assistants who may be entitled to additional pay retroactively. Therefore, you should be prepared for waiting a while for the revision of your pay.
If your employer is a member of Heta – Union of the Employers of Personal Assistants in Finland, your employer will receive instructions for this situation from their union. Wellbeing services counties have the responsibility to provide instructions to all employers of personal assistants regardless of whether or not they are members of Heta Union. You can use the forms for demanding payment of outstanding salary on the website of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Finland to claim your outstanding pay.
When you are a member of JHL, you can ask for help for making the request for clarification from the nearest JHL’s regional office or by calling JHL’s Employment Advice. See the contact information here.
Personal assistance enables thousands of people with disabilities to live a life of dignity and participate in society. Personal assistants do valuable work, and establishing the heta-tes collective agreement as generally applicable is an important step forward because it means that in future all personal assistants are covered by some collective agreement.
JHL will continue its work to improve the position and terms and conditions of employment of personal assistants. The best way to ensure that the voice of personal assistants will be heard also in collective agreement negotiations is that as many personal assistants as possible are members of JHL.
Join JHL!
JHL is the most diverse trade union in Finland. Our members work in about one thousand different occupations in welfare and public services. You can be for example a social welfare or health care professional, a youth worker or an early childhood education and care professional, a cleaner, a cook, a secretary, a security guard or a train conductor, and we are your trade union!
