Negotiations on the collective agreement for personal assistants have started
Negotiations on the collective agreement for personal assistants have started on 6 February 2025. The current agreement term ends at the end of April.
Negotiations on a new collective agreement for personal assistants (Heta-tes) started on Thursday 6 February 2025. In the first negotiation meeting the negotiating parties outlined the schedule for the negotiations this spring.
The Heta-tes collective agreement for personal assistants applies to those personal assistants whose employment relationship is based on the employer model. This means employment relationships where either the person with disabilities or their representative is the assistant's employer and is organised as a member of the employer association Heta (the Union of the Employers of Personal Assistants in Finland) (link in Finnish).
The collective agreement for personal assistants is negotiated by JHL’s Senior Bargaining Specialist Laura Tuominen and Bargaining Specialist Pinja Lumitsalo, and the representatives of the employer association Heta.
The atmosphere of the first negotiation meeting was expectant.
– The new Disability Services Act became effective after a long process in the beginning of this year. The significance of personal assistants as multi-skilled disability services employees increases. This affects the negotiations as well, Tuominen states.
A member survey brings the members’ viewpoints into the negotiation goals
JHL has sent out a survey that is designed for all members who work as personal assistants.
– We will analyse the viewpoints and needs that our members tell us and take them into consideration when we finalise our goals for the collective agreement negotiations. We also evaluate the needs from the perspective of the reformed Disability Services Act.
The agreement term of the current heta-tes collective agreement for personal assistants will end on 30 April 2025. The schedule of the collective agreement negotiations becomes more detailed during February.
At the moment more than 20,000 personal assistants work under the employer model for personal assistance, and it is for the time being the most common model for organising personal assistance. All in all, the total number of personal assistants is estimated to be over 40,000.
JHL negotiates on and has people in all collective agreements that concern the various models for producing personal assistance. In total JHL represents about 3,000 personal assistants in these agreements.
More information
Laura Tuominen, Senior Bargaining Specialist at JHL, 050 409 2460
Pinja Lumitsalo, Bargaining Specialist at JHL, 046 921 4566
Your trade union JHL negotiates on a number of collective agreements in 2025. Follow the negotiations on our website.