Dutch municipalities and trade unions have reached an agreement in principle on a new collective labor agreement for municipal employees. This is reported by the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG). There have been strikes for weeks for a better collective labor agreement, in cities such as Utrecht, The Hague and Amsterdam, among others, no waste was collected. The strikes are now suspended.
The new agreement in principle applies for 24 months, employers and trade unions must now present the agreement to their supporters. According to employer chairman Ton Heerts, it took time, ‘but in the end we have a robust result: agreements that fit the times and also provide clarity for the coming year. We are proud of this agreement in principle. Now it’s up to our members to speak out.”
The boards of the WSGO and the VNG will decide on January 27, 2022 whether the employers will ratify the agreement.
‘We are proud of this agreement in principle’
Salary, benefit, harmonization
The agreement in principle includes agreements on salary, a one-off payment, a minimum hourly wage of 14 euros, the harmonization of leave and the possibility of saving leave. The agreement has been concluded between the employers VNG and WSGO (Employers’ Organization Cooperating Municipal Organizations), and the trade unions FNV, CNV and FDO-MHA. The agreement concerns the Cao Municipalities and the Cao SGO (cooperating municipal organisations), which are approximately 170,000 employees.
It has now been agreed that wages in the lowest scales will increase by 13 percent – this concerns garbage collectors and city cleaning staff. An increase of about 12 percent has been agreed for the scales just above that, such as a special investigating officer (boa). Wages in the highest scales will rise by nearly 7 percent.
