On Tuesday 7 September, we discussed a new Collective Labor Agreement for Metal and Technology with employers for the second time. We had asked the employers to come up with concrete proposals this time because they were so vague and unclear about their proposals for a new collective labor agreement last time.
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They have now become concrete on only one subject. That is as far as their position on the RVU scheme is concerned. Under this scheme you can stop working 3 years before your state pension age. You will receive compensation from your employer at the level of the AOW benefit for a maximum of 3 years. The employers are willing to agree this arrangement, possibly based on that of the Motor Vehicles, with us, but they want to take a number of agreements from the current collective labor agreement, such as the sparing measures and seniors' days. They also want to change the generation pact in such a way that you can no longer use this arrangement without the consent of your employer.
It is precisely these agreements that we made at the time to keep our employees fit and healthy until their retirement age. The employers also recognize that these agreements have worked well and that the older employees have become much more vital as a result. For that reason, they feel that they are more employable. Despite this, they claim that the Generation Pact has not achieved its goal and according to them, employees aged 55 and over have become less productive.
Following the first round, our feeling has unfortunately been confirmed by the above. The employers are prepared to make new agreements with us if we accept that the new collective labor agreement will deteriorate.
They do not want to make agreements at sector level at all about a home working arrangement, work and care (work-life balance), the possibility to save extra leave to be able to develop yourself or to stop earlier.
All in all, this gives us the impression that employers have a very different, less positive, image of their own sector and employees than ours. This worries us about the next and also the last collective labor agreement negotiations next Tuesday.
On behalf of De Unie we will continue to be positive and constructive. We will propose our collective labor agreement regarding, among other things, a responsible wage increase (inflation + 1%), new agreements to increase sustainable employability (better harmonize work and private life), continuation and further development of the generation pact and opportunities to to maintain leave to save.
We will meet again on September 14th. Immediately afterwards we will inform you of the outcome. Do you want to stay informed (live) of the latest developments? Like and follow us on social media:
Linkedin.com/company/de-unie-metal
If you would like to give us any comments for the upcoming negotiation round, please contact us by email metal@unie.nl.
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