JHL is increasing pressure with another strike 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 24-hour assisted living and assisted living.

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

– The private sector’s pay raises must comply with the public sector’s pay raise level. This is what we demand. The sector’s worsening shortage of employees is already threatening its ability to attract new employees and hold on to the old ones, JHL President Päivi Niemi-Laine states.

The strikes apply to 24-hour assisted living and assisted living units in Uusimaa and Southwest Finland. They will begin at 12.01 am on Thursday 1 June 2023 and end at 11.59 pm on Saturday 3 June 2023. The work stoppage 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.

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.

Previously, JHL filed a strike warning in the 24-hour assisted living facilities in Pirkanmaa, Kanta-Häme and Päijät-Häme, early childhood education and care units around Finland and separately in Uusimaa and Southwest Finland. Furthermore, JHL filed a strike warning in child protection units in Uusimaa and Southwest Finland.

The first strike concerning assisted living will start at 12.01 am on 23 May and end at 11.59 pm on 27 May. The first early childhood education and care strike will start at 12.01 am on 23 May and end at 11.59 pm on 24 May. The child protection strike will start on Wednesday 31 May at 12.01 am. It will end on Saturday 3 June at 11.59 pm. The second early childhood education and care strike will start on Wednesday 31 May at 12.01 am. It will end on Friday 2 June at 11.59 pm.

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.

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 within assisted living (1–3 June)

More information about industrial actions notified by 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