A next round of government-led wage talks between union and employers was due after the latest forecasts showed rampant price rises would trigger another automatic wage indexation by the end of the year. The Prime Minister announced that he would convene a tripartite meeting. Social partners decided to suspend the next automatic wage indexation which was due in July, and instead pay out tax credits to make up for the loss in purchasing power. Workers would receive the July indexation in April next year, the agreement said, and could meet again should another indexation become due in the meantime, a scenario that is now playing out. By paying out tax credits instead of going through with wage indexations, the government shifted the financial burden away from businesses and on to the taxpayer.
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For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
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