Negotiations began on collective agreements in the hospitality sector

PAM and the Finnish Hospitality Association MaRa, which represents employers, began negotiations Friday 3 March on minimum employment terms and pay for employees and supervisors in the hospitality sector.

“At this first meeting we went through the situation in the hospitality sector and what changes the parties need to make to the present collective agreement provisions”, explains PAM’s collective bargaining specialist Raimo Hoikkala after the negotiations.

In February PAM and MaRa concluded that their views on the level of pay rises were too far apart to reach an agreement by the deadline. Therefore PAM terminated the collective agreements for the sector effective 31 March. So now the negotiations are about the entire collective agreement, meaning not just wages but other employment terms too.

Several dates have been agreed for negotiations in March. The next time the negotiating parties will meet is on 14 March.

You can follow the progress of the negotiations here.

 

Around 75,000 workers in Finland are covered by the collective agreement for the hotel, restaurant and leisure industry, and around 10,000 people are covered by the collective agreement for supervisors in the sector. The collective agreement for the sector typically applies in restaurants, cafes, night clubs, staff canteens as well as hotels and spas.