In the March 29 email, Ellen Koning, People Services Director, informed us:
Recently, various countries within the worldwide Arcadis organization have drawn attention to the increase in inflation in their own country. We in the Netherlands have also raised this point in our contacts with the Executive Leadership Team. This global appeal has resulted in a collective salary increase as of April 1 in all Arcadis countries. In the attachment you will find the message that was distributed last Thursday evening by our CEO Peter Oosterveer. (The internal message of Peter Oosterveer I suppose is familiar.)
In concrete terms, this means a collective salary increase of:
- 3% for all employees up to GJF (= Global Job Framework) level 8
- 2% for all employees in GJF level 9, 10 and 11.
The so-called group above the collective labor agreement (level 12 and higher) is excluded from this increase.
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For Arcadis Netherlands this means that the largest group of employees with an Arcadis contract (approximately 65%) will receive an additional 3% and more than 30% of Arcadis employees will receive 2%. This additional raise from Arcadis is a sign of appreciation to our employees, their hard work and demonstrated resilience to the challenges we face both internally and externally. Due to this additional, collective increase, part of this collective labor agreement population exceeds the personal maximum of the salary scale. On the basis of this additional increase, our proposal is not to immediately adjust the salary scales accordingly and to increase them accordingly, but we would like to include this increase in the discussions about the new collective labor agreement that we want to start with you in the short term.
With regard to this additional, collective increase of 2 or 3%, we hereby ask you to agree with our proposal to include the aforementioned increase as of 1 April 2022 in the negotiated result for the new collective labor agreement 2022-2023. We have the following reasons for this:
- Our current collective labor agreement expires on 1 Oct 2022. We determine the collective increase in part on the basis of the “CBS-adjusted price index” of the previous calendar year. We now know that the relevant index for 2021 has come out at 2,5%. We believe it is of great importance not to have employees wait until 1 October to receive the compensation for 2021, partly in view of the sharp increases in the same index in January and February of this year. Seen in this light, the collective increase as of 1 April is therefore a welcome measure for the employees.
- The collective increase announced within Arcadis will be paid in full by each country individually. There is therefore no financing from Arcadis corporate to the countries concerned.
In the Netherlands, the increase must therefore be obtained from the operating result for 2022. This means that we consider it justified to include the aforementioned increase as of 1 April next in the negotiation result for the collective labor agreement that expires on 1 October.
We realize that this is not the usual way in which we have successfully concluded collective agreements with you up to now, but given the sharp rise in inflation and the costs that weigh left or right in the scope we have as an employer for the coming collective agreement, it seemed reasonable to us to be able to make this request for your consent.
An – unannounced – interim structural increase in wages.
It may be a somewhat unusual turn of events. A proactive employer on this subject. I ask you to cast your vote on this. Members have been invited to vote.
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