Even with raging staff shortages, employers seem unwilling to come up with improvements.

Last Friday, a delegation from the FNV, together with the CNV, again entered into talks with employers to negotiate the new Collective Labor Agreement for Healthcare Transport and Taxi. These were the first negotiations since the summer and given rising inflation, they had one priority: to create financial security for members. The unions indicate that, due to sky-high energy bills and expensive groceries, it has long been impossible for many of their members to make ends meet, even with all the extra hours.

package of requirements

Negotiations started in May with a strong set of requirements of 18 points to improve the new collective labor agreement. After 6 rounds of negotiations, the trade unions indicated that they experienced little movement from the employers. Even with raging staff shortages, employers seem unwilling to come up with improvements. FNV perceives this attitude as that employers do not see that a good collective labor agreement is necessary to attract new colleagues and more importantly, to keep them in.

move on

That is why they came up with a proposal on Friday in an attempt to take a step towards employers. The unions are prepared to move a large number of points to next year's negotiations. But only if the employers come up with the following key points. An automatic price compensation (APC) so that wages are increased annually and purchasing power no longer declines.

They want to use the APC for the 2023 collective labor agreement as follows: a minimum wage of €14 per hour, where €14 will be the first wage step in the new wage structure and all other steps will rise along with it. In the event of illness, the unions want 100% continued payment from the first day and the abolition of waiting days. As far as working time is concerned, there is a demand for equal treatment of working time for mobile and non-mobile personnel.

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To increase the pressure, they are organizing a collective labor agreement strategy meeting for FNV members on Saturday 1 October.

All signals are also red for employers. In view of last week's consultations with the trade unions, it was decided to convert the KNV sounding board meeting into a formal general members' meeting of KNV Zorgvervoer en Taxi. In view of the latest developments, it is of great importance that as many members as possible participate in this general members' meeting and that the trade association can adopt a position widely supported by the members.

actions

Employers offer an 8% pay increase and are still 7% away from at least $14 an hour. They also stick to the current continued payment of wages in the event of illness. This still means a penalty for the unions on the wages of the members when they are sick. This also means that waiting days during which people do not receive wages remain intact.

Employers also want the old paid time to be returned to the collective labor agreement, whereby a maximum of 6 interruptions may take place at work location with an unlimited time. This means that if there are no rides for a driver, it will not be paid time. To increase the pressure, they are organizing a collective labor agreement strategy meeting for FNV members on Saturday 1 October.

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