In this message we inform you about collective labor agreement negotiations, pension consultations, sector consultations and the national state of affairs regarding diversity and informal care.
High
The current two-year collective labor agreement for Health Insurers runs until October 1, 2024. In order to be ready on time, the collective labor agreement parties have already planned the dates for negotiations for a new collective labor agreement. We will start on Tuesday, April 16, with an exploration of the collective labor agreement process. This time too, we are negotiating under the guidance of an external chairman. Without having concrete commitment letters by the 16th, we will discuss which themes will be on the table in the collective labor agreement negotiations. The parties' commitment letters will be discussed on Tuesday, May 14, when we meet for the first round of negotiations. We then set a number of dates in June and September. The negotiation process is at a standstill in July and August due to the summer holidays. We will contact the members again in April to determine the commitment. If you would like to put a theme(s) on the agenda, please let the representative know.
Retirement
There have been various consultations about pensions between employers and trade unions and also with the SBZ pension fund. Almost all parts of the new pension scheme have been discussed among themselves and with the pension fund and recorded in the legally required transition document. We now have to wait a little longer for the calculators from Ortec. They include our components in their calculations and then provide insight into how it works out for the different groups. Once we have those insights and agree with them, members will receive an invitation to vote. Before we do this, we will create a kind of brochure to explain what the new pension scheme means.
SBZ Pension recently published another newsletter The PensioenActueel January is out (sbzpensioen.nl) published, which also includes the webinars they will organize in 2024 on numerous topics surrounding pensions. All webinars from 2023 can also be viewed again.
Sector consultation
In the sector consultation, employers and trade unions work out a topic. This may lead to a (joint) contribution to the next collective labor agreement for health insurers. At the end of 2023, we talked about diversity and inclusion and more specifically about equal pay between men and women. We have jointly come to the conclusion that we want to conduct a broad investigation into this with health insurers. The trick is to ask the right questions and obtain relevant data. Because conducting research is not our specialty, we ask a researcher to join us at our next meeting on Monday, April 8, 2024.
Diversity
De Unie is part of the trade union VCP. In the polder, it consults with other trade unions, employers' associations and the cabinet, for example the SER and the Labor Foundation, to put matters on the policy agenda. One of the topics they work on is promoting diversity within organizations. You can read about the current situation in the various sectors SER provides insight into gender balance in companies - VCP.
Informal care
De Unie is part of the trade union VCP. In the polder, it consults with other trade unions, employers' associations and the cabinet, for example the SER and the Labor Foundation, to put matters on the policy agenda. One of the topics they have worked on is the informal care inspiration document. Due to an aging population, shifting retirement ages and staff shortages in healthcare, more and more people are combining their work with informal care tasks. In total, a quarter of workers combine a job of 12 hours per week or more with providing informal care. You can read more information about practical stories, concrete tools and practical tips in the Inspirational document 'It works together!' | Labor Foundation (stvda.nl).
Contact
If you want to respond to this newsletter or want to get in touch, you can reach the representative Emanuel Geurts via 06-5252 2074 or via emanuel.geurts@unie.nl. For individual advice you can contact the Service Center department on 0345-851 963, via email sc@unie.nl or the chat function www.unie.nl. We are happy to help you!
