Despite unions offering to negotiate far-reaching reforms to the collective agreement in order to underpin job security, negotiations have stalled as local government employers are taking a hard line on both pay increases and changes to employment conditions. The unions say that the pay rises offered of only 1% in 2011 and 2012 are inadequate with inflation expected to reach 2.5% in 2012. They also say that while they are willing to see changes to the collective agreement –covering 180,000 employees-- to allow more flexibility and mobility in the sector, they cannot agree to the employers’ plans to repeal all local employment rules by 1 April 2013 with no protection guaranteed for existing staff (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 March 2011).
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/422
Dutch: http://www.abvakabofnv.nl/cao's/Alle-Cao's/gemeenten1/
http://www.mijnvakbond.nl/Overleg-CAO-Gemeenten-mislukt?referrer=272
This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2011.