As most people know by now, the current collective labor agreement expires on December 31, 2025. De Unie and the other collective labor agreement parties would like to extend this with effect from 1 January 2026.
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Collective Labor Agreement 2026
We are about to schedule discussions with management to agree on a new collective labor agreement as of January 1, 2026. We want to make new agreements about the extension of the collective labor agreement. De Unie The opinion of its members—yours, that is—is essential in this regard. Therefore, the representative wants to know their wishes, ideas, and proposals for further improving the collective bargaining agreement.
To give you some context, we want to share a few points with you:
- In particular, the proposed €1.500 wage increase in the current collective bargaining agreement meant that we did not speak of a collective bargaining agreement negotiation result at the time, but of a final offer. We believe that nominal Structural increases, for example during a period of high inflation, can be a solution to achieve a somewhat defensible collective bargaining agreement result. However, we believe that this should not be, or should not become, the usual approach. Therefore, we want to include agreements in the new 2026 collective bargaining agreement regarding percentage structural wage increase.
- We can also note (we were also aware of this) that the wage agreement in the current collective labor agreement (€ 1.500) has led to a decline in purchasing power for higher incomes.
- According to the AWVN (General Employers Association of the Netherlands) the current average collective labor agreement increase (of more than 350 concluded collective labor agreements) is 3,96% on an annual basis.
- The CPB (September 2026 Key Data) assumes that purchasing power will fall by 2,9% in 2026 if no collective labor agreement increase appliesIn other words: to maintain purchasing power (only), a structural wage agreement of 2,9% is required.
This summary suggests that we should (be able to) agree on a collective percentage wage increase in the new collective bargaining agreement, which will result in improved purchasing power. What do you think?
- Of course, there are other matters on which we can make (better) agreements. These include (in no particular order):
- Working towards the introduction of more flexible employment conditions; also known as a choice model or a collective labor agreement à la carte.
- Do you think there are agreements needed to improve the work-life balance?
- Home work allowance.
- Reimbursement for external financial advice.
- Are you experiencing excessive workload? And how could that be resolved?
- Are you satisfied with the current system of salary progression?
- The number of days of leave and vacation.
- Making optimal use of the available free space within the Work Costs Scheme (WKR) to offer employees additional secondary employment conditions with tax benefits.
If there are other topics you'd like to discuss, we'd be happy to hear from you. We greatly appreciate your feedback. Your feedback is an important guideline for De Unie for formulating the collective labor agreement proposals and thus for being able to agree on a balanced negotiation outcome for a new collective labor agreement for 2026.
We would like to hear your response to this message before October 24th via jan.admiraal@unie.nl
Questions or remarks?
Do you have any questions or comments about this message? Please contact the advocate Jan Admiraal via jan.admiraal@unie.nl or call 06-5252 2048.
