Commerce sector collective agreement

The agreement includes, among other things, wage increases and a significant wage system reform for the commerce sector.

In addition, the parties agreed on a consultation procedure regarding protection against dismissal and termination of employment if the employment is terminated for reasons related to the employee.

Other important changes in the agreement are clearer rules regarding working hours and improvements regarding temporary absence.

• The first salary increase will be on 1 May 2025 with a general increase of 2.9% to salaries and pay-scales wages.
• The second salary increase will be on 1 August 2026 with a general increase of 2.5% to salaries and pay-scales wages.
• The third salary increase will be on 1 May 2027 with a general increase of 2.4% to salaries and pay-scales wages.

The agreement provides for salary increases of a total of 7.8 percent during the contract period. Based on the average salary statistics for PAM members in the sector, this means that the average salary will increase by approximately 240 euros per month.

The salary increases apply to personal salaries and pay-scale wages.

The double bonus in logistics for Sunday night work on Sundays will be abolished and the compensation will be single bonus from 1 October 2026 onwards.

The night bonus in logistics will be increased to 5.30 euros from 1 October 2026 onwards.

Other working time bonuses in euros or cents will not be increased during the agreement period.

The reform of the salary system (renumeration system) for sales assistants and shop employees is a result of long-term development work. The new system will be introduced on 1 October 2026.

With the reform, the collective agreement will now have one common job requirement classification that applies to all employees covered by the collective agreement in the commerce sector.

The change means that compensation will be based on a general job requirement classification of work tasks. New classifications that better identify the demands of the work will be introduced in the sector. The minimum wage will also be determined based on these classifications. No employee’s salary will be reduced due to the reform.

PAM trains, guides and assists its members and elected union representatives in matters related to the reform.

The logic of naming seniority levels was changed to correspond to the actual years of service in accordance with the table below.

The change does not affect the minimum wage based on years of service. Experience and vocational training in the profession gives right to the same minimum wage as before.

Example

Earlier, the first-year employees wage was paid when an employee had already worked for a year, so from the beginning of their second year of service. Now, for such an employee the pay scale refers to second-year employees’ wages.

After three years of service, the minimum wage is the fourth-year employee wage. After five years of service, the minimum wage is the sixth-year employee wage. And after eight years of service, the minimum wage is the ninth-year employee wage.

The trainee wage remains as before. That means an employee that lacks experience or vocational degree mentioned in the collective agreement may be paid 85 percent of the wage of a second-year employee in that job requirement level.

PAM and Finnish Commerce Federation have agreed on practices that must be followed in the workplace when the employer plans to dismiss an employee based on grounds to do with the employee.

The collective agreement states that the employee has the right to have the elected union representative present at the consultation meeting regarding the dismissal, or if there isn’t one a trade union official or union branch representative. The consultation must be arranged in such a way that the employee has an effective opportunity to attend and prepared for it.

PAM carefully reviews dismissals, takes unclear cases to court if necessary, and communicates how they are progressing.

Employee rights

• proper time for preparation before the hearing
• sufficient information about the facts on which the decision is based
• an effective opportunity to present one’s own view on the matter.

The employer must

• inform the employee of his/her right to use an assistant. At the employee’s request, the assistant can be a union representative or if none has been elected, a trade union official or union branch representative.
• assess the conditions for continuing the employment at the hearing.

The regulation on working hours has been revised in the new collective agreement so that it is more in line with the reality in the sector, where people work at all hours of the day. The definition of days off has been clarified and the system of organizing weekends off has been revised, among other things.

Going forward, employees must get at least 7 long weekends off and 8 other combinations of consecutive days off during the calendar year. Before, free weekends during annual holidays were also counted in weekend days off, but in the new provision that is no longer the case.

A long weekend off means time off that starts no later than 22:00 on Friday and ends no sooner than 06:00 on Monday. The long weekend off must last at least 59 consecutive hours.

A combination of consecutive days off means time off for at least 59 consecutive hours.

In addition, there are now sanctions for employers who do not schedule all days off required by the collective agreement.

If a child under the age of 10 suddenly falls ill, employees will no longer need to submit a medical certificate to the employer. Instead, they can be absent from work for 1-3 calendar days through self-reporting.

The employer may require the employee to present a certificate if the employer considers it necessary for a justified reason.

The commerce sector collective agreement has for the first time a provision regarding infertility treatment.

Now workers have the right to unpaid temporary absence for infertility treatment.

Appointments are often scheduled at short notice and when the employee can count on getting the time off, they can commit to the treatment.

Employees will now have the right to exchange holiday pay or part of it for equivalent paid leave when the leave is used for skills development (e.g. studies).

The collective agreement stipulates that the annual discussion with supervisors should take better account of enabling administrative work and how any standby and on-call systems affect their workload.

In addition, a working group will focus on promoting well-being at work.

During the agreement period, PAM and the Finnish Commerce Federation co-operate to develop the sector. This work is done in working groups according to the principle of continuous negotiations. These working groups were agreed in negotiations:

• The education working group will continue to support changing skills in commerce sector. The working group shall for example explore different ways to increase vocational adult education.
• The commerce logistics working group will review the uses of different forms of labour and employment.
• The remuneration working group will work to implement and follow-up the job requirement classification as well as work on a reform of working hour supplements.
• The part-time working group is tasked with finding more effective and appropriate ways to increase full-time employment and allocate increases in employment contract hours.

In addition, the commerce sector equality monitoring group and the round table on the future of the commerce sector will function during the agreement period. The round table works as the Finnish Commerce Federation’s and PAM’s joint discussion and development forum for the future of the sector.

Once the new collective agreement has been approved, all the agreed changes, new provisions and protocols will be transferred to the collective agreement texts in cooperation with PAM and Finnish Commerce. This will take some time.

and a conservative estimate is that the collective agreement as a whole will be available in Finnish in June. When the collective agreement has been translated and checked, it will be available in English online and later in print.