Employers and trade unions finally agreed on Thursday evening on a new collective labor agreement for the thirteen thousand employees in regional transport. The parties agreed on a wage increase of 15 percent over 27 months.
Employees also receive a one-off payment of one thousand euros. In addition, measures will be taken to reduce the workload.
Negotiator Marijn van der Gaag of trade union FNV says he is “satisfied” with the result. “In terms of pay rise, we are taking very good steps.” He emphasizes that the deal still has to be presented to the members. According to him, the CNV trade union has also agreed to the negotiation result that has been concluded with the employers’ organization VWOV.
It was also important for the unions that the workload goes down. Agreements have also been made about this, according to Van der Gaag. For example, there will be extra breaks and improvements to the schedules.
Negotiations took months
The collective bargaining has taken months. Since January, the talks have repeatedly stalled, because none of the parties wanted to compromise. The unions had committed to a salary increase of 14 percent. But the employers did not want to go beyond 11 percent.
In recent months, employees in regional transport have been on strike several times. With the agreement, new strikes are over.
This concerns the collective labor agreement of the carriers Arriva, EBS, Keolis, Qbuzz, RET and Transdev. The collective labor agreement does not apply to employees of the city transport companies in Amsterdam and The Hague. Most RET staff in Rotterdam and NS staff also fall under a different scheme.
