On February 6, 2023, a new negotiation result was reached with the Employers Technical Wholesale (WTG) about the new collective labor agreement.
From February 13, 2023 to February 19, 2023, employees in the Technical Wholesale sector can vote again on the new negotiation result for the collective labor agreement.
We held three intensive talks with the WTG on the basis of a new proposal from the WTG and on 6 February we achieved a considerably improved negotiation result on the new collective labor agreement. In our opinion, the maximum result has now been achieved with negotiation.
You can read a summary of main points here. Click here for the English (convenient) version.
If you want to read the full text of this negotiation result, click here here.
Click here for the English (convenient) version.
What are the improvements and what is the interpretation of De Unie
Income
Provided: you should always assess an offer about the amount of the structural salary increase in relation to the term of the collective labor agreement.
The WTG bid the rejected collective bargaining offer 5% over a term of 15 months. Expressed on an annual basis (ie calculated on a 12 month basis) this is 4%.
In the new negotiation result we have a structural increase of salaries in total 6% agreed (as of 1 April 2023 4% and as of 1 September 2023 2%) in a collective labor agreement with a term of 12 months.
- This means that the new agreement is 50% higher than the old collective labor agreement offer of the WTG: from 4% to 6%.
- Although 6% does not meet the wish of a large majority of the respondents of the DigiC survey to compensate for the full price increases, we can also see that a full compensation of inflation has not been agreed in any collective labor agreement in the Netherlands. The agreed collective labor agreement increases in collective labor agreements in the Netherlands amount to an average of 2022% over the whole of 3,8. The average collective labor agreement increase of the collective labor agreements concluded in December is 6%.
- When assessing the previous collective labor agreement offer, we distinguished between temporary inflation and structural (core) inflation and found that as a you want to compensate for structural inflation (= inflation that will no longer disappear) in collective agreements, you should agree on a structural wage increase of at least 6%. In that respect, the now agreed 6% (4% + 2%) meets this requirement.
Effective date of salary increases, one-off payment and floor
You can see that the structural increase of 4% will take effect on April 1, 2023. That is 3 months later than the 4% from the previous old collective labor agreement offer. We have of course discussed this point with the WTG.
Because we know and believe that the lower incomes are relatively more disadvantaged by this, we have proposed to increase the one-off payment of €1.000 (gross). Unfortunately, we have not been able to reach an agreement on this.
But to do something more than 4% for the lower incomes, there is a bottom agreed with the structural increase of 4%. We have agreed that the increase of 4% at least € 90,- (for a full-time salary). This means that the structural wage increase with an income of less than € 2.200 per month is/will be more than 4%. For example: if your salary is € 2.000, your new salary will be € 2.090; an increase of 4,5%.
As we said earlier, the one-off payment of € 1.000 makes a good contribution to the current loss of purchasing power. And the € 1.000 also partly compensates for the disadvantage of the structural increase starting later than on the first day of the new collective labor agreement. Because the wage increase of 4% does not take effect on October 1, 2022 but on April 1, 2023 and because the wage increase of 2% takes effect on September 1, 2023, there is a disadvantage. On the other hand, this improved negotiation result is 2% higher than the previous collective labor agreement offer and that your salary on 1 October 2023 has risen structurally by at least 6% to a maximum of 6,7% (due to the floor of € 90). .
Travel expenses
We have also agreed on an improvement on this subject. Each employee receives a travel allowance if the employee lives more than 10 kilometers (one way) from the workplace. If the home-work distance is more than 10 kilometers, the full home-work distance, up to a maximum of 30 kilometers (one-way distance), will be reimbursed. The travel allowance for commuting is at least € 0,19 per kilometer.
Pension scheme
The parties to the collective labor agreement have agreed that every company in the technical wholesale trade should be obliged to offer a pension scheme to its employees. In 2023, the parties to the collective labor agreement will investigate to what extent employers currently offer a pension scheme to their employees and, if so, what the content of this scheme looks like.
Topics to be discussed
Naturally, the other results of the broad DigiC survey are also very valuable. And that is why we have agreed with the employers Technical Wholesale (WTG) to further elaborate these important themes during the term of the Collective Labor Agreement. This applies in any case to the themes of pension, leave schemes and vitality scheme/generation pact scheme.
We provided the previous (old) collective bargaining agreement of 30 November 2022 with an extensive explanation and an 'assessment' that was as objective as possible during the voting round in December. We have done this and we do, because we can imagine that giving an opinion on a negotiation result is not always easy because there is usually no or insufficient frame of reference among employees with which you can compare the agreements.
What preceded this?
DigiC
As most of you know by now De Unie participated for the first time according to the so-called DigiC process in the collective labor agreement negotiations at the Technical Wholesale. This means that all employees have been involved to provide input for the negotiations and also that all employees have the opportunity to vote on the final result.
Click here for the results of the DigiC survey of November 2022.
Click here for our commitment letter of De Unie which is based on the outcomes of that DigiC survey.
The final collective bargaining offer of the WTG of November 30, 2022 and the poll about it
In October and November last year, we conducted collective labor agreement negotiations with the WTG, which resulted in a final collective bargaining offer of the WTG.
De Unie submitted that collective labor agreement offer of the WTG to the vote of the employees in the sector neutrally according to the DigiC method. If you want to read again how we think you can view the final collective labor agreement offer of 30 November 2022, click here. At the time, we mainly concentrated on the wage increases offered by the WTG. What we said about it then, in broad terms, still applies as far as we are concerned.
With a majority of 60% of the votes cast (7680 votes were cast at the time), the WTG's collective bargaining offer was rejected. See for that dit message on our website.
Then how did it go on?
When casting the vote, employees in the Technical Wholesale were able to explain their vote. Those explanations have been carefully reviewed to get a good picture of the reasons given by employees for rejecting this result and the reasons given for agreeing.
With the information based on the many explanations (almost 3000) of the respondents, we have called on the WTG to withdraw the collective labor agreement offer of 30 November and to talk to us again to take steps that will ultimately lead to a new collective labor agreement result that can count on the support of the employees.
The WTG then invited the trade unions and on 18 January negotiations on new, adjusted and better collective agreements started.
Finally
This negotiation result turned out to be the maximum achievable result. In our estimation, the employers have shown the back of their tongue. Should a majority of the votes cast reject the negotiation result, it is strongly expected that employers will not reopen negotiations again.
To vote
In order to vote, the employees will be approached by the independent research agency Innervoice. Via your e-mail address known to your employer you will receive a message with a link to a voting form where you can then cast a vote with an explanation. You can vote until Sunday 19 February 2023.
It is important to cast your vote. Even if your employer has already implemented a wage increase. The collective labor agreement will only become final if we can agree to the collective labor agreement on the basis of the vote.
Contact
Do you have any questions and/or comments regarding this message? And if you want to email the representative about this, please send an email to jan.admiraal@unie.nl.
Click here for our sector page Technical Wholesale.
