De Unie is consulting with NN Group about a new scheme for Time and Place Independent Work (TPOW). Members have at the request of De Unie completed a survey in large numbers. This allows us to align our position with the expectations of the members. I, advocate Inge de Vries, would like to share the results of the survey with you. This will be used to express the position of the next TPOW meeting (28 January 2021) De Unie to clarify.
Survey results
Question 2 Concept of hybrid work
18% of the participants in the survey (further participants) indicate that they do not really know what NN means by hybrid working. Many people expect to have a good idea of it. De Unie will ask to pay attention to good communication. Almost 1/5 part has not been taken properly yet.
Question 3 Customization
92% of the participants indicate that they expect to be able to make good agreements with their manager about hybrid working. This gives a positive picture of the employment relationship at NN.
Question 4 Workplace
The question of whether you have an occupational health and safety responsible and quiet workplace at home is divided. 59% answered in the affirmative, 41% answered in the negative.
De Unie NN will point out that employees must be well informed about the requirements for the workplace at home. NN intends to make only 0,4 workplaces available per FTE in the future. So you are actually obliged to do part of your work at home. De Unie believes that for this reason the design of your workplace should be borne by the employer. The argument that employees also enjoy working from home is less important. Incidentally, when asked, NN indicated that employees who cannot work from home will be given the opportunity to work at the office.
Question 5 Work location
The participants in de Uniesurvey, a large majority indicate that they start working from home on the days they do not work in the office (88%). There is limited interest (9%) to work at another flex location.
Question 6 Homework allowance
The survey shows that the home work allowance is expected to consist of the following components:
- Reimbursement for the purchase of work equipment 91%
- Internet fee 72%
- Energy costs and other charges 74%
The explanation for this question was filled in by many participants. This provides interesting points for attention and suggestions for the negotiations on a TPOW scheme.
Questions 8 to 11 Quality of work
These questions were about hybrid working. Of course, it is also important that hybrid working yields the same qualitative results. For this reason, people were asked about the experience people have with working from home. Job satisfaction in particular seems to suffer from the lack of contact with colleagues or with others. But it is also often indicated that two days a week in the office is probably sufficient to maintain contact with colleagues and others.
According to most participants, productivity and quality of work are not or positively influenced by working from home. Only 20% indicate that working from home has a negative effect on the efficiency with which they can work. 14.5% indicate that the quality of the work has decreased.
Question 12 Commuting expenses
The travel allowance is also part of the Time and Place Independent Work. NN has recently terminated the continued payment of the travel allowance. The facility for public transport will be continued, but except for the very occasional commute to and from work, it is hardly or not used at all. We are talking to NN about a new commuting scheme. The survey shows that a majority (51%) wants to continue to use the public transport annual pass. This is in line with NN's wish, the employer believes it is important to encourage the use of public transport. In 30% of the cases, the other participants opt for their own transport arrangement due to a fixed budget (whereby you choose the appropriate means of transport for each journey) or in 19% of the cases for a reimbursement of 19 cents per kilometer traveled.
Business travel expenses are also part of the discussions about Time and Place Independent Work. The employer proposes to reduce the reimbursement of these costs to 19 cents per kilometer traveled for business purposes. With this, NN wants to ensure that employees continue to opt for online meetings in the future. In this way, NN wants to contribute to reducing CO2 emissions. De Unie does not agree. The 19 cents per kilometer does not cover the full cost of the car and our starting point is that the costs you incur to do your work must be reimbursed. We assume that employees are able to consider whether a meeting online is sufficient for an appointment, even without financial blackmail.
The same consideration by NN applies to the lease arrangement. NN takes the position that lease drivers must contribute to the company's objective of limiting CO2 emissions.
High
The collective labor agreement negotiations have been temporarily suspended until March 2, 2021. The negotiations are at an impasse. In the intervening period, trade unions will enter into discussions with their supporters. Because we want to work together with the other trade unions in this phase, we need extra time to prepare for this properly. The plan is to further inform the members at the end of this week.
Contact
Do you have any questions regarding this message? Then contact me. This can be done by sending an email to: inge.de.vries@unie.nl or call 06-5252 2091.
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