Workshop Striking for Beginners
On Tuesday 14 March we organized the workshop 'Staking for Beginners'. Colleagues across the country have responded to this call. Due to the enormous success, we unfortunately ran into technical issues. Did you miss the workshop because of that? You can view the presentation here find. There are many questions among colleagues. The unions and members do their best to answer all questions as quickly as possible. We have the QA on the action page already updated with some questions.
ING proposal
De Unie and the other trade unions, like all employees, have received a message with a new collective labor agreement proposal from the bank. We are carefully studying this offer and will report our findings as soon as possible. We ask for a moment, because we want to be sure that our explanation is 100% correct. If you sign up now, we will always be the first to inform you.
Strike, work stoppage or workshop?
Let's be very clear right away. On Tuesday, March 14 De Unie organized a workshop with the other trade unions. With regard to participation in the workshop, this falls under the provision on the facilities for the trade unions (Article 8.4 CAO).
We are getting a lot of questions about the question about the status of the workshop “staking for beginners” today, March 14 between 10 and 12.00 noon. As communicated with you, but also with ING, this is a course organized by the joint trade unions.
It has been agreed in the collective labor agreement that:
- You are entitled to an exemption from work to attend meetings of your trade union, in principle up to a maximum of ten days per calendar year, possibly to be taken in half days. These days are separate from the days on which you are present as an executive at negotiations about a collective labor agreement or Social Plan.
- You are also entitled to exemption from work to follow courses organized by or on behalf of the Trade Unions. In principle, a maximum of six days per calendar year applies.
It is also stated that you will discuss these exemptions with your lead.
Given the massive nature of this course, consultations were held with ING at a central level, whereby ING indicated that employees could follow this course. As far as we are concerned, the coordination has already taken place as agreed in the collective labor agreement.
It was not until the morning of the course itself that ING communicated to the employees that this would be a work interruption and that this would be taken into account in the payment of wages. As far as we are concerned, ING is wrongly going back on the attitude it took earlier. It is clear to the unions that this workshop falls under the provisions on the facilities of the trade unions.
We also believe that it is a bad thing that leads from ING's management are forced to inquire who has participated in the workshop and to report this in connection with a possible deduction of wages for those 2 hours. As mentioned, this is not a work interruption/strike, but a course that falls within the scope of the collective labor agreement provision. Furthermore, ING was aware of the workshop and has already granted permission to participate! For that reason, the employees do not have to consult separately with the lead, let alone that the lead has to pass this on to management.
If the lead is aware of your participation in the workshop, there is no further need for that lead to pass this on. If this were otherwise, the relationship of trust between lead and his team would be unnecessarily put under pressure and, as said, attending this workshop cannot have any further consequences for wages or other adverse consequences. No one should or can get into trouble by participating in this workshop. Please contact us immediately if you think this is the case.
Continuation
We will continue in the coming days and weeks. Our goal is still to convince ING of the need to arrive at a fair and future-proof collective labor agreement for all ING employees. Register now and really participate!