The Government took the first legislative steps towards reducing the working week from 40 to 37.5 hours without loss of pay, following an agreement with the unions but without the support of the country's main employers' organisations. The bill, which the main unions CC.OO and UGT described as a historic measure that could potentially benefit 12 million workers, many of them women, according to union sources, was approved by the Council of Ministers. Meanwhile, the country's main employers' organisation, CEOE, rejected the text and called for a "gradual" reduction in working hours through collective bargaining.
Read on: in English…
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.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.