Collective Bargaining

We negotiate our members' collective agreements for the public and private sectors through our Akava-based negotiation organizations.

We carry out our negotiations through The Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff YTN for the private sector and through Negotiation Organisation for Public Sector Professionals JUKO for the public sector.

Negotiating through negotiation organizations allows higher educated employees to wield greater influence than union-level negotiations, as all higher educated employees in a particular sector (rather than the members of a single union or profession) are included in the negotiations. 

The collective agreement (TES and VES) is an agreement negotiated by an industry’s trade union and employers’ federation. It covers a range of terms and conditions related to work, including sick pay, holiday pay, notice periods and the shop steward system. The terms agreed in the collective agreement constitute the minimum terms and conditions that employers must comply with regarding all their employees. You can find the current agreements on the YTN and JUKO websites. In questions related to the application of the collective agreements, please contact our employment guidance services or our specialists!

PERSONNEL REPRESENTATIVES DEVELOP WORKPLACE OPERATIONS

In the workplace, our members are represented by YTN's and JUKO's shop stewards, employee representatives, staff associations and occupational safety representatives. Personnel representatives actively participate in the development of their workplace's working conditions and terms of employment and engage in dialogue with the employer. We encourage our members to participate in this important work, as BBAs are well positioned to act as representatives of their coworkers in the workplace!

Read more about personnel representatives >>

For more information on negotiations, personnel representatives and collective agreements, please contact our employment guidance services or our specialists.