News Yesterday
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In collective bargaining negotiations next year, the FNV trade union wants to aim for a 7 percent wage increase, a minimum wage of 16 euros and a four-day workweek of 32 hours. Employers are shocked by the new wage demands and call the aim for a four-day workweek “unrealistic”.
“Wages have been lagging behind for years, because there has been no improvement in purchasing power,” explains FNV vice-chairman Zakaria Boufangacha. “While the rich are getting richer, there are large groups of people who can barely make ends meet and have poor quality work. The growth in prosperity can and must be distributed much more fairly.”
This year the union is still aiming for wage increases of up to 14 percent. That the new wage claim The fact that the figure for 2025 will be lower is due to lower inflation, although the union continues to advocate for automatic compensation for price increases “so that people are assured that their wages will remain at the same level in the future”.
Shorter working week
Following the example of the CNV trade union, FNV now also wants to focus on a shorter working week. At a time when employees are being asked to work longer and harder, FNV calls this a necessary step. “We want to counteract the tightness on the labour market with this. Research shows that a four-day working week actually increases the labour supply. It benefits productivity and reduces absenteeism; this makes full-time work more attractive,” says Boufangacha.
Trade union CNV recently aimed for a 3.5 to 6 percent wage increase and two hours of reduced working hours per week, to create a better balance between work and private life. But in fact, CNV wants to move towards a thirty-hour workweek.
“There are already too few people to do all the work,” responded a spokesperson for employers’ association AWVN. According to This employment conditions advisor of Dutch employers should work more hours to solve the shortage on the labor market. “How do you arrange that in health care, for example? There are already too few hands at the bedside,” says the spokesperson about a further shortening of the working week.
According to ABN AMRO economist Aggie van Huisseling, the tightness on the labor market will not be solved by having employees work four days a week. She advocates flexibility in the number of hours people want to work to attract more people to the labor market, instead of shortening working hours. “It is wise to let people decide for themselves whether they want to work more or fewer hours.”
Wage demand too high
AWVN also calls the wage demands of FNV and CNV of 7 and 3.5 to 6 percent respectively “incredibly high”. He fears that the Dutch economy will suffer if such wage increases are agreed. “Wage increases mean higher wage costs for companies. That is at the expense of the competitiveness of Dutch companies and therefore causes a weakening of the economy.”
Business associations VNO-NCW and MKB-Nederland also find FNV’s wage demands too high. “We’ve made up for lost time. Purchasing power has recovered from the inflation shock. So it’s time to go back to normal.” They also don’t like a shorter working week. “We shouldn’t forget that people in the Netherlands also have to work.”
Minimum wage
Another aspect of the FNV’s demands package is the increase of the minimum wage to 16 euros per hour. “The cabinet is dropping the ball here,” Boufangacha believes.
The union has long wanted the minimum wage to be raised significantly, but this is not happening. The minimum wage for people aged 21 or older is currently 13.68 euros per hour.
Source: ANP
