The collective labor agreement negotiations of 30 June 2021 were intended as the last day of the negotiations. Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to reach an agreement.
Collective salary increase
Consultation with VGZ is not easy. From the outset, the parties were far apart in the area of wage development. De Unie wants to agree on a collective salary increase that is in line with VGZ's results. De Unie is of the opinion that VGZ has achieved good financial results in the past period. These great results have been achieved in large part thanks to the efforts of the employees. We therefore believe that employees should reflect this in their salary. In addition, inflation is already quite high and appears to be rising further. De Unie believes it is important that the disposable income of employees at least remains at the same level, and if possible has improved.
Duration
VGZ would like to agree on a collective labor agreement with a term of 19 months, from 1 June 2021 to 31 December 2022. De Unie prefers a maturity of 12 months because economic developments in a year can be better estimated. We have to carefully estimate what a good structural salary increase is for this somewhat longer period. One that does justice to the efforts of the employees over the past period and that also offers sufficient financial security. The parties to the collective labor agreement need additional time for this.
So we haven't come out yet on June 30, 2021. And despite the considerable distance from each other, the parties to the collective agreement are hopeful that they will succeed in concluding a collective agreement if we schedule an extra round of negotiations.
Other subjects
We have of course not only talked about wages and salaries. A variety of topics have been discussed in recent months. The parties have more or less already reached agreement on many topics, but we still have a few topics to discuss. This includes topics that are important to VGZ. But also topics that De Unie or proposed by one of the other trade unions. There are also topics for members of De Unie are important, but which cannot be discussed by VGZ. An example of this is the 80-90-100 scheme used by De Unie has been proposed for the benefit of older employees. VGZ absolutely does not want this, which makes consultation difficult.
Continuing consultation
So we haven't come out yet on June 30, 2021. And despite the considerable distance from each other, the parties to the collective agreement are hopeful that they will succeed in concluding a collective agreement if we schedule an extra round of negotiations. We have decided to continue the collective labor agreement consultation on Friday 9 July 2021.
If we can't figure it out then we have to continue the consultation after the holidays. De Unie will then schedule members' meetings to determine a direction for the consultation together with the members.
If we succeed in reaching agreement on 9 July 2021, we can present a broad package of employment conditions.
Contact
Do you have questions about this message? Please contact the representative, Inge de Vries, by e-mail: inge.de.vries@unie.nl or by telephone: 06-5252 2091.
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