Earlier this month we informed our members about the start of negotiations for the new Metal and Technology collective labor agreement. The second round of negotiations took place last Wednesday, February 28, 2024.
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Employers lacking ambition
At the start of this negotiating day, the trade unions responded to the few concrete proposals from the employers. The unions have indicated that they find this lacking in ambition. Employers are reluctant to attract people and invest in younger employees. In addition, the employer makes deterioration proposals for older employees, such as raising the age for shift work and overtime. This is at odds with their statement that they want to promote the vitality of employees.
Response to our proposals
The employers then responded substantively to the proposals from the trade unions. They indicate that they do not want to agree on many of the topics discussed at the collective labor agreement table, but would prefer to see this arranged at company level. They also believe that part of what is proposed is already arranged within the sector by the companies themselves, such as arrangements regarding working from home and travel expenses. As a result, these agreements are thrown over the fence and placed with often smaller companies, so that these matters are then properly arranged at one company and not at the other. Overview and clarity for the employee is therefore hard to find. This defeats the purpose of the collective labor agreement.
Senior Days
The employers' delegation indicates that it is prepared to discuss Article 51 and its correction to prevent employees from losing their senior days after the age of 65.eHowever, they want to remove these days from the front of the scheme by raising the starting age. This is a disappointment and a deterioration for the part of the employees where the scheme is already being applied as intended.
Deviation from collective labor agreement
In short, the employer talks a lot about social innovation and sustainable employability, but does not make any concrete proposals for improvement. In response to our follow-up questions, employers indicated what they understand by social innovation: removing regulations from the collective labor agreement table and agreeing on them at company level, such as working hours, hours bank and shifting of the day window. In addition, employers believe that more attention should be paid to skills rather than the diplomas of employees. The question is what this should look like in practice.
Next consultation
It is De Unie It is not clear what challenges employers face in the current collective labor agreement when wanting to implement these types of ideas within the sector. We are prepared to discuss this further with employers to gain more clarity.
We will meet again on March 14th. We have asked employers to provide a concrete response and concrete proposals on that day, so that we can make progress in the negotiations.
If you have any questions about this message, please contact one of our advocates Suat Koetloe of Peter Werger.
