In our news item last week, we briefly explained how the fourth day of negotiations for the Metal and Electrical Industry collective labor agreement (CLA) went. We've since received a great deal of input from our members. Most of our questions and comments were about the proposals regarding the CLA.energy pact, disability, and the salary limit in the HP collective labor agreement. In the message below, we will therefore delve deeper into these topics and the current state of affairs.
Join now, starting from €0
Generation pact
We discussed the proposals during the negotiations De Unie and other unions to generation pact and the RVU to expand further. De Unie aims to work towards a sector-wide range of schemes for all employees in the Metal and Electrical Industry, regardless of their stage of life, career step or age category.
How was this responded to?
The FME argues that the purpose of the generation pact was to provide opportunities for young employees to take over the work of older colleagues. Employers indicate that due to a lack of recruitment and retention of young employees, the generation pact has become merely an arrangement for older employees and thus defeats its purpose.
They describe the unions' proposals as an increase in employer costs and a loss of labor capacity. They are therefore Tegen the unions' proposals to further expand the Generation Pact.
What is the current status?
De Unie recognizes the signals from our members and employers in the sector: finding and retaining new employees is a challenge. Factors like shift work (including night shifts), physical work, and limited training and certification capacity seem to deter young workers. This is despite the fact that there are so many excellent career opportunities for employees in the sector.
De Unie would like to collaborate with employers to address the actual problem: employee recruitment and progression. This could lead to sectoral agreements to attract young people to the Metal and Electrical Industry. Instead, employers seem to be primarily using the lack of young recruits as a reason not to expand the generation pact. We hope that the FME and its members will reconsider this.
Disability and sustainable employability
There has been talk about incapacity for work en absenteeism preventionBoth the unions and employers have put forward proposals for this. There is now a absenteeism working group established, with participants from both trade unions and employers.
What have the employers proposed?
The FME argues that the current provisions in the Metal and Electrical Industry collective labor agreement are difficult to implement in practice. They propose mandating continued pay during illness of 70% after six months of absence, instead of the current 100%. Furthermore, they want to limit the accrual of roster-free days during illness and encourage the use of sick leave.
What is the current status?
Absenteeism is a major challenge in the sector. De Unie would therefore like to focus on helping employers and preventing employees from dropping out, for example with our proposal to make it possible for people aged 55 and over to no longer work night shifts.
Unfortunately, we find little agreement with the FME's proposals. In our view, the proposal to reduce the salary of long-term sick employees (sick for 6+ months) encourages ignoring the advice of the occupational health physician to prevent financial impact. Especially in cases of long-term absence, the occupational health physician's advice is decisive, as they are trained to assess employee capacity.
We also miss the emphasis on absenteeism prevention. Investing in this area yields the greatest return on investment in absenteeism management. Research by TNO also shows that within the Metal and Electrical Industry, occupational health and safety legislation is often not (sufficiently) complied with. Prevention is, according to De Unie therefore a much better starting point for a discussion about agreements than punishing employees for (long-term) absence.
By being part of the absenteeism working group, talk De Unie We will continue to contribute to sector-wide proposals for preventing absenteeism and eliminating its causes. We will continue to do this with your input.
HP collective labor agreement and salary limit
The FME has made a proposal on behalf of the employers to the salary limit in the HP collective labor agreement to be set at €90.000, instead of the current €128.176.
What is the current status?
Employers argue that wage increases in recent years have resulted in an increasing portion of the salary margin flowing to senior staff. In our view, this cannot fully justify the proposal to drastically lower the threshold. After all, the salary threshold has risen proportionally in line with collective bargaining agreement wages.
The unions have therefore stated that the intention is to reach agreements in the collective bargaining agreement negotiations on (among other things) wage increases for all employees in the sector. The employers have confirmed this. We have therefore asked the employers to provide a clear definition of who they consider to be employees.
De Unie During negotiations, the company indicated that lowering the salary threshold in the HP collective labor agreement to €90.000 would represent a step back in time for employees covered by the HP collective labor agreement, which last reached €90.000 in 2013. This would penalize employees whose salaries have increased in recent years for their successful careers. We find this inexplicable.
What now?
The FME has argued that employers in the Metal and Electrical Industry are currently facing difficult times. High energy prices, regulatory pressure, persistent staff shortages, and international competition pose significant challenges for employers. De Unie We also hear and see that many employers in the market are struggling with this. We do find, however, that many of these issues do not stem from collective bargaining agreements or wage costs, but are primarily driven by decisions made by The Hague.
Yet employers seize these challenges to pass them on to employees. Virtually every proposal from the unions is rejected on the grounds of cost savings and labor productivity. They also offer a 2% wage increase for 12 months.
De Unie fears that this will only exacerbate the personnel challenges in the sector, which will not help in attracting new staff and reducing workload and absenteeism.
Keep providing us with input!
De Unie can't do without its members! If you have any input, comments, or suggestions regarding the negotiations, please let us know!
Do you have any questions, comments, or input for us in the meantime? Please contact the negotiators. jesse.van.roeden@unie.nl of peter.werger@unie.nl.
