Why does collective bargaining take place?
Finnish Commerce Federation and Service Union United PAM are negotiating the generally binding Collective Agreement for the Commerce Sector. The current collective agreement is valid until 31 January 2025.
The field’s minimum terms and conditions of employment are agreed between the employer and employee organizations. In the negotiations of the Collective Agreement for the Commercial Sector, the negotiating parties aim to acknowledge and respond to the working life’s need for change, which may concern, for example, working time and salary regulations. Through the collective agreement, both negotiation parties aim to secure the minimum interests of their own members.
Collective agreements are usually negotiated for a few years at a time. How long a collective agreement is valid at a time depends largely on the content of the outcome of the negotiations. Bigger changes in the content of the collective agreement justifies for a longer term.
After the end of the validity of the collective agreement, the negotiating parties can once again bring their own negotiating objectives to the table and seek to fulfill their members’ interests through a new collective agreement.
Read more about the role of the collective agreements >>
After the end of the validity of the collective agreement, the negotiating parties can once again bring their own negotiating objectives to the table and seek to fulfill their members’ interests through a new collective bargaining agreement.
The negotiating parties’ aim is to negotiate a new collective agreement before the existing collective agreement expires. If the new collective agreement cannot be negotiated before the expiry of the existing collective agreement, there will be a period when no agreement is in force. In that case, the provisions of the old collective agreement will continue to be complied with in the employment relationships, but the duty to maintain industrial peace which is in force during the term of the collective agreement, will no longer apply. This means that employees can go on strike organized by the trade union. In addition, employers can impose lockouts in workplaces. These measures are intended to persuade the other party to pursue its own negotiating objectives.
