Collective agreement negotiations of the private social services sector ended
Trade Union JHL has ended negotiations on the collective agreement for the private social services sector with the employer’s association Hali on 28 January 2026. The negotiations did not produce a result.
The collective agreement for the private social services sector has been negotiated since November 2025 without a result. JHL has had clear views about agreement text objectives and the level of pay increases, but the views of the employers’ association, the Finnish Association of Private Care Providers (Hali), are still far from those of JHL.
Especially the level and distribution of pay increases have been a source of disagreement. The negotiations broke down late at night yesterday, Wednesday 28 January, and JHL is getting ready for industrial action to speed up progress.
“The negotiations have been difficult, and there was little progress in sight. The employer party is unwilling to compromise over important objectives that would improve the working conditions in the sector. The propositions that they have made so far would not bring a real change to the current situation”, comments Trade Union JHL’s Bargaining Specialist Tanja Tuunanen-Vainio.
Perceptions of the sector’s current situation affect the negotiations. The massive co-operation negotiations and change negotiation in the social welfare and health care sector have led into record-level unemployment. JHL’s negotiators have repeatedly been told that there is no shortage of workforce in the sector and that therefore the employer is under no pressure to improve the terms and conditions of employment.
“Although workforce is available at the moment, we know that the sector will be hit by mass retirements. Moreover, the weakened financial situation of wellbeing services counties has created an artificial block that prevents them from outsourcing services, and this bubble, too, will burst”, stresses JHL’s Bargaining Specialist Siru Heromaa-Karjalainen.
JHL has pursued in the collective agreement negotiations solutions that would secure the quality of private health and social services also in the future. The private social services sector is in an exceptional position because it produces statutory services for wellbeing services counties as outsourced services. JHL’s view is that the work done in social services in the private sector is same as the work done in the public sector. Workforce moves between these sectors, and employees compare the terms and conditions of employment. The working conditions and pay settlement in the public sector have improved. Now there is reason to fear that the private sector will lag even further behind.
“The decisions that we make now have to increase attraction and retention of employees in the private sector. We cannot just wait until we have a crisis of social and health care services on our hands. Hali is acting irresponsibly when it ignores the situation that inevitably looms ahead and trusts that there will be enough workers also in the future. We all know that soon it will not be so any longer. A cheap collective agreement is not a solution to the workforce shortage that is waiting around the corner”, stresses JHL’s Chief Executive Officer Mari Keturi.
Follow the news on JHL’s website and on our other channels.
More information:
Bargaining Specialist Tanja Tuunainen-Vainio 050 463 2243
Bargaining Specialist Siru Heromaa-Karjalainen 050 472 4270
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