Cleaning, real estate sectors paralyzed as PAM begins 2-day strike

The cleaning and property services will be disrupted across the country as Service Union United (Palvelualojen ammattiliitto) PAM started a two-day strike from early Thursday night.

About 25,000 cleaning and custodial employees of 16 main companies will refrain from work due to the strike started at 00.00 am, according to a press release issued by PAM on Wednesday.

PAM started the strike as the negotiation talks with the Real Estate Employers’ Association (Kita) was ended without any fruitful result.

The union is demanding a new collective agreement on pay hike.

It rejected the mediation proposal put forth by the National Conciliator on Tuesday.

PAM President Rönni-Sällinen in a statement on Wednesday said that low-paid workers in the sector really need an uplift to their pay, but that was not in the offing.

The minimum wage of a full-time property services sector worker is 1809 euros a month (pay scale 2). But there are a lot of part-time workers in the sector, especially in cleaning, meaning that many people’s earnings are even below this.

PAM rejected the proposal because the increases were not sufficient. In PAM’s view, the level of the mediation proposal was below settlements made in other sectors.

“There’s no way we will be contributing to widening pay gaps”, Rönni-Sällinen said.

“The cost of living has shot up. It’s different for property services companies. In a labour-intensive sector where wages haven’t gone up, inflation has hardly affected the companies. In that sense too, companies should be able to afford to pay better wages”, Rönni-Sällinen added.

Meanwhile, the strike will affect services for Passengers with Reduced Mobility at Helsinki Airport between March 23 and 24, said country´s airports operator Finavia in a press release on Wednesday.