Summertime is in full swing. This is the time when we look ahead to the upcoming collective labor agreement negotiations for professional freight transport. In a series of small articles we poll your opinion on certain topics. Did you miss the previous topics or do you want to read them again? Click here!
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Which salary question do you think should be De Unie going to submit?
Keep in mind that the question must also be realistic. Actually, that doesn't mean more than that you have to have a good reason/argument. I am therefore curious what arguments you want to put forward to justify your wage demand.
Every good argument is a building block for the wage demand and the more good arguments we have, the higher the wage demand can become. Undoubtedly, employers will submit arguments why such a high demand for wages is not feasible. Parties will try to refute each other's arguments and try to convince the other party with their argument.
Try in your response to me to indicate not only what percentage we should ask, but also why you think that. It would be nice if you also consider what argument employers could/want to bring up against this.
What building blocks do we have?
- We want (at the very least) to preserve purchasing power.
Any collective labor agreement in which no wage improvement is agreed is in fact a standstill in growth and therefore a decline. Purchasing power is really the minimum you should ask in order not to deteriorate, so that you can at least do the same with the income you will earn now as you did a year ago. Because if your salary remains the same and prices rise, you have less and less to spend. Statistics Netherlands expresses purchasing power retention in an inflation figure, they call it CPI (consumer price index). (Many people think that you are entitled to it, that it would be legally arranged that way. That is not the case.) At the moment, the Netherlands has the highest inflation ever! - We actually want to improve purchasing power.
As said before, you don't want to decline, you want to grow. Everyone wants to be able to support themselves and pay for their basic needs, but you also want to be able to build something. For example, extending a family, a hobby, being able to save for something, et cetera. - The sector makes enormous profits, it is fair if the employees also benefit from this.
If your employer is doing badly financially, it does not make much sense to submit high wage demands. On the contrary, moderation so that the employer does not go bankrupt and you do not want to lose your job is then appropriate. Employers assume that you understand that. Can you assume that if the sector makes huge profits (especially at the time when you had to work under bizarre circumstances) that they will let you share in this? In the first quarter of 2022, turnover increased by more than a quarter compared to last year, which is much higher than at the beginning of the corona era. It is not known to me how high the profit has become as a result, but it is clear that it has not done the employer any harm. Without the commitment of the employees (in this difficult time) this would never have been possible. - In the transport sector, employees have been paid very moderately for many years.
In 2020, the parties to the collective labor agreement had a benchmark (comparative study) carried out into other collective labor agreements under which people are employed who could also be employed in professional goods traffic. This showed that the large negative difference in pay has narrowed slightly over the years, but is still very large. The difference in the rewards at the bottom of the scale is still around 9 to 13% (depending on which feature you're viewing). When is this going to be a good catch up? - There is a serious shortage of staff.
The workload in the sector is high and it is difficult to find staff. Competition in the labor market is fierce. This century we have never seen such a high vacancy rate in the sector. At the beginning of this year, more than 19.000 vacancies were open. Reason enough seems to me to cherish the staff you have. A better reward might not be such a bad idea after all. - The secondary employment conditions are only moderate.
The pension provision is good, but otherwise the fringe benefits, if they exist, are mediocre. This could be compensated by a good wage increase. - In general, the work is hard and stressful.
There is or is a lot of work pressure that causes unhealthy stress. Bee De Unie Complaints are regularly received about the dashboard computer and/or impossible schedules. About working long days without feeling that they are being appreciated. A frequently heard complaint from employees is that they do not feel understood, they have the idea that the employee is not being listened to, which also causes stress. A wage increase alone does not remove these complaints, but it can help a little. - Do you have any other building blocks?
Let me know right away!Filling out the survey below is appreciated. You can enter this here. Thank you for filling in.
Contact
Edith Weger, collective labor agreement negotiator of the Union takes heh heh step about this step along through it process around de collective labor agreement negotiations. The coming weeks Worden introduce discussed. Do you want react? Click here for you reaction te give. Get started september is there on the entered comments responded.
