JHL's collective agreement negotiations are in full swing; we pursue fair pay rises and better working conditions
Your trade union JHL has kicked off the year 2025 with a number of collective agreement negotiations. Our goal is to improve our members’ pay and working conditions. Follow the negotiations at JHL’s website and in social media!
JHL’s negotiations on new collective agreements started to pick up momentum in the beginning of 2025. We are going to negotiate new collective agreements to nearly all our members this year.
As January turns to February, collective agreement negotiations are well underway for example in the railway, state and church sectors and several Palta sectors.
The private early childhood education and care sector is negotiating a completely new collective agreement. These negotiations started already in autumn 2024.
Late spring is going to be the busiest time for JHL’s negotiators, as the current agreement terms of many agreement sectors end. You can check the end dates of all agreements on our collective agreement negotiations page.
Better pay and working conditions
Our members have been thoroughly involved in the formulation of our negotiation goals. In summer 2024 we conducted a survey where we received responses from more than 6,600 members. And in November the union leadership did a tour where they visited several places around Finland to hear the members’ thoughts on the negotiation goals.
JHL’s general negotiation goals are categorised into five key themes:
- Increasing purchasing power with proper pay rises
- Securing terms and conditions of employment with agreements when legislation deteriorates
- Goals regarding quality of working life: better everyday work
- Goals regarding personnel representatives: employees need representatives who protect their interests
- Goals regarding the environment: taking climate change into consideration in work
Our most significant negotiation goal has to do with pay rises.
– JHL’s objective is to improve purchasing power through fair pay rises. It’s important to ensure that pay rises are fair for all employees. This needs to be considered in distribution of pay rises, comments JHL’s bargaining director for public sectors, Kristian Karrasch.
Furthermore, we want to secure our members’ position in the upheaval of the labour market.
– The Government of Finland has systematically sought to weaken the employees’ position for example by weakening protection against dismissal. Personnel representatives must be properly enabled to perform their duties so that they can defend the employees’ interests effectively when changes are made, continues JHL’s bargaining director for private sectors, Marianne Leskinen.
Your trade union JHL negotiates on a number of collective agreements in 2025. Follow the negotiations on our website.
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 expert, a cleaner, a cook, a secretary, a security guard or a train conductor, and we are your trade union!
