The Service Union United (PAM) at any given time has some 600 cases in which members, individually or collectively, disagree with their employers in retail and catering. Half of all cases concern pay claims, Kaarlo Julkunen, PAM's vice president explained in an economic daily; two thirds involve young employees and immigrant workers who are disgruntled by low pay, and catering is doing worse than retail. Julkunen also noted positive developments. For example in 2002, when the German-based retailer Lidl started up in Finland, it achieved a reputation for frequent disputes with its employees. Since then, Lidl's behaviour has improved and it no longer differs from other retail chains, Julkunen says. He referred to a network of shop stewards established at Lidl following the model of other retailers operating throughout the country.

English: http://www.artto.kaapeli.fi/unions/T2010/n20

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI atwww.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2009.