FNV sends collective labor agreement ultimatum to Metal & Technology employers

Juggling with percentages

FNV collective labor agreement negotiator Peter Reniers: ‘Employers keep juggling with percentages and duration, but in fact they have stuck with their first bad total proposal. In terms of wages, this final offer amounts to an increase of only 5% on average per twelve months. And on top of that, they have maintained all their previous deterioration proposals. They do nothing at all to promote the influx of young people and the elderly have to work until they drop.’

Very disappointing final offer

Reniers: ‘The lack of willingness to meet our most important demands, especially in the areas of (youth) wages, heavy work regulations and generation pact, is deeply disappointing. Hopefully they will still turn the tide, otherwise we will prepare for strikes.’

‘We have made a significant reduction in purchasing power during the past collective labor agreement period, but employers don’t seem to care about this. The sector must really be prepared for the challenges of the future, such as the energy transition, automation and digitalization. The new collective labor agreement must be rock solid for this.’

Most important collective labor agreement requirements for FNV Metaal

Duration

12 months; from April 1, 2024 to April 1, 2025.

Loon

A structural increase in salaries and salary scales by 10.1% as of April 1, 2024, to repair the inflation gap that has accumulated since October 2022. Including, in the context of a structural improvement in purchasing power, a wage increase of 100 euros gross per month.

Introduction of APC (automatic price compensation) to prevent future inflation gaps.

Deletion of the youth scales. The sector must be made much more attractive to young people.

RVU (Early Retirement Scheme)

The current RVU scheme should be extended indefinitely. In addition, the parties agree that they will jointly endorse and advocate further expansion of the RVU tax space and further improvement of the heavy work scheme.

Generation pact

The Generation Pact ensures that older employees have the opportunity to work less and retire healthily, while at the same time giving young people the opportunity to join the workforce. The basic principle is that the hours released by the shorter working weeks of older people are filled by newcomers with a (permanent) employment contract.

Employees are given the right to participate in the generation pact, where they can choose between the 60-80-100% and 70-85-100% variants. In addition, the (current) condition that participation in the generation pact is only allowed if employees have reduced their leave reservoirs to at least 296 hours must be abolished.

Internship compensation

Introduction of a mandatory minimum internship allowance of at least 500 euros per month for a full-time internship week.

Largest collective labor agreement in the market sector

The Metal and Technology collective labor agreement is the largest collective labor agreement in the market sector, with approximately 360,000 employees in the sector and approximately 36,000 employers. The collective labor agreement covers technical installation companies, metalworking companies, insulation companies, bodywork companies and the gold and silver industry. The current Metal & Technology collective labor agreement expired on March 31, 2024.