The collective labor agreement runs for two years, with retroactive effect from March 1, 2025 to February 28, 2027. The collective labor agreement includes, among other things, that employees receive a pay increase of 3.25 percent, a one-off net payment, an improved profit-sharing arrangement and a structural arrangement for older employees to work less or retire earlier. Agreements have also been made about productivity and the use of flexible workers.
Wage increase in stages
Part of the collective labor agreement result is a structural wage increase of 1 percent as of December 1, 2025, followed by 1.25 percent as of July 1, 2026 and 1 percent as of January 1, 2027. In addition, employees will receive a one-off net payment of 500 euros in December 2025 and 250 euros net in January 2026 (based on full-time employment).
In total, the structural wage increase amounts to 3.25 percent over the term of the collective labor agreement. The shift allowance will also count towards the basis for the end-of-year bonus from 1 January 2026.
This means that the provisional agreement reached at the end of October has been approved. At that time there was no agreement yet, because the members still had to agree to the agreements.
‘Submission agreement’
To the disappointment of trade unions FNV and CNV, De Unie, NVLT and VKP concluded a provisional deal with KLM in September. According to those agreements, staff would improve by 2.25 percent.
FNV and CNV called this a ‘hand-in agreement’, because the purchasing power of the staff would deteriorate significantly rather than the wages would increase. They demanded a better wage offer and reinforced their position with a series of strikes. The first strike lasted two hours, the second four hours and the third six hours.
This caused quite a bit of chaos: tens of thousands of passengers ultimately suffered as a result of the battle for a better collective labor agreement, and hundreds of flights had to be canceled.
The fourth day of strike – with an eight-hour work stoppage – was canceled because the unions and KLM decided to sit down again after summary proceedings.
‘Peace and stability’
Miriam Kartman, HR director of KLM, calls it ‘a broadly supported agreement’ in the press release and is happy with the end result.
‘We have made solid agreements about remuneration, career, productivity and flexibility. This is good news for our colleagues, who retain their purchasing power, and for the entire company. This provides peace and stability for the coming years.’