JHL files a new strike warning in the private social services sector

Trade Union JHL is speeding up the private social services sector’s collective agreement negotiations with a new strike warning within child protection and early childhood education and care. In addition, the entire agreement sector’s ban on overtime and shift swaps will continue.

The Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL has filed a second strike warning in the private social services sector. The reason is that negotiations are in a deadlock.

– We want the employer to acknowledge the fact that the private sector’s pay raises must be at the same level as the public sector’s raises. We’re not willing to compromise on this. The sector’s ability to attract new employees and hold on to the old ones must be safeguarded during a worsening shortage of employees, JHL President Päivi Niemi-Laine states.

The strikes apply to child protection and early childhood education and care units in Uusimaa and Southwest Finland.

The strike applying to child protection will start on Wednesday 31 May 2023 at 12.01 am. It will end on Saturday 3 June 2023 at 11.59 pm. The industrial action will apply to work shifts that start during the strike.

The work stoppage in early childhood education and care applies to work shifts that start between 12.01 am on Wednesday 31 May 2023 and 11.59 pm on Friday 2 June 2023. The work stoppages will last until the end of the ending shift.

JHL’s goal is for the private social services sector to get pay raises that will level out the unjustified pay gap compared to the public sector.

– There is an entry in the previous agreements in which the employer party commits itself to fixing the issue of these pay gaps, JHL’s Bargaining Specialist Tanja Tuunainen-Vainio states.

– JHL has together with other organisations made several suggestions to level out the pay gap We’ve tried to compromise but the employer party hasn’t been happy with any of our compromises, JHL’s Bargaining Specialist Hanna Katajamäki explains.

JHL started a ban on overtime and shift swaps in the private social services sector on Tuesday 2 May 2023 at 1 pm. The bans will now continue until 1 pm on Tuesday 30 May.

Work tasks that require an employee’s constant and immediate presence because of a customer’s state of health, and that are necessary to prevent the customer’s life from being endangered, are ruled out of the work stoppage.

Previously, JHL filed a strike warning in the 24-hour assisted living facilities in Pirkanmaa, Kanta-Häme and Päijät-Häme, and early childhood education and care units around Finland. The strike concerning assisted living will start at 12.01 am on 23 May and end at 11.59 pm on 27 May. The early childhood education and care strike will start at 12.01 am on 23 May and end at 11.59 pm on 24 May.

In Finland, there are thousands of workplaces that produce services within the sector. The sector’s professionals work in, say, private day care centres, assisted living and nursing homes, housing services for people with disabilities, mother-and-child homes, shelters, substance abuse centres, child protection, and as personal assistants. Over 70,000 employees work in the sector.

Employees are represented in the the private social services sector’s collective agreement negotiations by the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL, Talentia Union of Professional Social Workers, social services sector alliance Salli ry and health and social services sector’s negotiation organisation Sote ry. The employer is represented by the Finnish Association of Private Care Providers.

Strike locations for early childhood education and care 31 May – 2 June

Strike locations within child protection 31 May – 3 June

More information about industrial actions notified by Trade Union JHL

More information:

President Päivi Niemi-Laine, 040 702 4772
Bargaining Specialist Hanna Katajamäki, 050 513 7701
Bargaining Specialist Tanja Tuunainen-Vainio, 050 463 2243