Under heavy pressure from the government in 2016 trade unions agreed upon a pact in the public sector that added 24 hours onto annual working time and cut holiday by 30 per cent for three years. With collective bargaining over a new agreement starting this autumn it looks like unions want to renew agreements only if the extended working hours are removed which means that the whole agreement that covers more than 100,000 employees must now be re-negotiated. According to the unions “the time of voluntary unpaid work is completely over”.
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For more information, please contact Sanne van der Gaag or Sjaak van der Velden, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) sannevandergaag@deburcht.org or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Steve Coulter scoulter@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.