The negotiations of the private social services sector at a serious impasse – JHL issues a second strike warning

The Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL has issued a second strike warning to speed up progress in the collective agreement negotiations of the private social services sector. The strike will take place on 3–5 March 2026, and it applies to work in the private social services sector at all member companies of the Finnish Association of Private Care Providers (HALI).

The negotiations of the private social services sector continued with the National Conciliator also last weekend, without a result. On Sunday evening, Trade Union JHL rejected the National Conciliator’s settlement proposal, as the only employee organisation to do so, because JHL will not compromise its values.

The negotiations remain deadlocked because the parties disagree on developing the terms and conditions of employment in the sector and on the level of pay increases. The employer party has offered pay increases that JHL finds insufficient.

JHL demands pay increases that match the demanding work and the amount of responsibility in the private social services sector. The settlement proposal that was received in the weekend would not have met this objective. It would only have increased the pay gap in terms of euros compared to export sectors and also compared to the public sector, where the pay for the same work is significantly better. The proposal also did not contain such agreement text improvements that would genuinely have taken the sector forward or compensated for the shortcomings of the pay increase proposal.

“The employees in the private social services sector need better recognition for the work they do. Therefore, the pay gap must be narrowed as a matter of urgency. It is inconceivable that the employer party is not willing to recognise this truth”, stresses the President of JHL Håkan Ekström.

In the public sector, the pays of female-dominated sectors have been adjusted in the right direction in the recent years. Trade Union JHL’s view is that this course must be adopted also in the private sector, where people do equally important work.

”We have to make decisions that improve attraction and retention of employees in the private social services sector. The labour shortage of the social welfare and health care sector can already be seen in the daily work. A negotiation result where the price of work is too cheap would only make the problem worse”, Ekström stresses.

The employer association HALI rejected the National Conciliator’s settlement proposal as well.

The new strike

This industrial action applies to work in the private social services sector at all member companies of HALI. Chief shop stewards, shop stewards and occupational safety and health representatives are ruled outside the industrial action during those times when they are released from their regular work duties in order to take care of their shop steward or occupational safety and health representative duties.

The strike applies to work shifts that start between 3 March 2026 00:01 (one minute past midnight) and 5 March 2026 23:59 (one minute before midnight). All work shifts that start within this time interval are subject to the strike.

JHL has furthermore issued earlier a ban on temporary transfers that is effective until further notice and concerns all JHL members who work at member companies of HALI. This ban will end when the other industrial actions end or when its ending is communicated separately.

Until further notice, JHL members change their work shifts only as overtime work.

The strike and the other industrial actions will be cancelled if a negotiation result is reached in the collective agreement negotiations of the private social services sector earlier.

The first strike wave, which JHL has announced earlier, will start tomorrow, 17 February 2026.

View JHL’s strike page for more details.

The collective agreement for the private social services sector has been negotiated since November last year. The National Conciliator began mediating the dispute at the end of January. This collective agreement is applied for example in private assisted living facilities for the elderly and for people with disabilities, nursing homes, mother-and-child homes, shelters, private child welfare institutions, personal assistance, and home help services.

More information for media:

President of Trade Union JHL Håkan Ekström, 040 828 2865