New collective agreement for personal assistants approved

Both agreement parties – employee party JHL and employer party Heta (Union of the Employers of Personal Assistants in Finland) have in their executive bodies approved the new one-year collective agreement. The pay raises will be paid on 1 August 2022.

A negotiation result was achieved on the national collective agreement concerning personal assistants (“Heta-tes”) on Wednesday 4 May.

The executive bodies of both JHL and Heta (Union of the Employers of Personal Assistants in Finland) have approved the negotiation solution. This means that the new one-year collective agreement has entered into force on 9 May 2022. It is valid until 30 April 2023.

The agreement period’s pay raises (approximately 2.1%) will be paid on 1 August.

JHL’s bargaining specialists Laura Tuominen and Pinja Lumitsalo are happy with the agreement solution. In their opinion, both the employee party and employer party have had central objectives taken into account by the solution.

The round of negotiations was examined in line with the demands of personal assistance work, and with the upcoming reform of the Act on Services and Assistance for the Disabled. One testament to this is the working group appointed for the agreement period. Its task is to look into the pay system reform.

Furthermore, when the agreement was being drawn up, recent statistical and research information was in use on the employer model for personal assistance in assistants’ employment relationships. The solution opted for bringing forward the timeframes for evening work and night work bonuses. As for experience increments, a new step will be included at 11 years. It acknowledges those who have worked long in the sector.

In the collective agreement that was now concluded, practices related to holiday pay have been improved. Many personal assistants with fewer working hours will in the future receive holiday pay.

– A lot of part-time work of short duration is carried out in the sector. That is why we are especially happy that, as a result of the agreement solution, holiday pay will from now on also be paid out of holiday compensation in employment relationships lasting over four months, bargaining specialist Laura Tuominen explains.

– We are also happy that we were able to promote our objectives related to occupational safety and health. These objectives have to do with, say, occupational safety, the practice concerning own notification of sick leave, and the vaccines required to work as a personal assistant, Pinja Lumitsalo adds.

She reminds that personal assistance involves working largely alone in another person’s home. That is why these themes are important for this sector in particular.

The collective agreement applies to the employment relationships of natural people who work for regular members of Heta – Union of the Employers of Personal Assistants in Finland.

A prerequisite for applying the agreement is that the regular member either themself or on behalf of a disabled person acts as the employer of the disabled person’s personal assistant. The agreement solution applies to over 2,500 JHL members.

The new collective agreement will be published on the negotiation parties’ websites soon.

Learn about the agreement solution.

More information:
Laura Tuominen, JHL’s bargaining specialist, 050 4092 460
Pinja Lumitsalo, JHL’s bargaining specialist, 046 9214 566