Membership of the largest and most influential business association in the Netherlands is no longer worth the membership fee, according to companies and interest groups in the retail sector. Certainly not now that membership of VNO-NCW will become tons more expensive in the near future.
It now appears that supermarket umbrella organization Central Bureau Food Trade (CBL) and supermarket chain Jumbo canceled their membership of VNO-NCW last year. After the notice period, they will no longer be members of the important lobbying organization as of January 1, 2027.
Ahold Delhaize – the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands – and trade organization Council Dutch Retail (RND) would also like to cancel. But spokespersons for both organizations do not want to confirm this. The Telegraph the news was the first to report on Sunday evening.
The employers’ organization is part of the Social and Economic Council (SER), an important advisory body to the government and parliament on socio-economic policy. VNO-NCW has eight seats in the 36-member SER.
The departure of the retail sector exposes long-standing dissatisfaction with VNO-NCW. The employers’ association represents 150 trade organizations and also has 190 company members (large groups such as Ahold Delhaize and Jumbo). Especially since the merger with MBK Nederland in 2006, VNO-NCW has become such a broad club that the employees at the association office have to represent a multinational one day and a small or medium-sized company the next. In retail, this means that VNO-NCW must stand up for the interests of supermarkets and their suppliers. This leads to general, gray positions, is the criticism. And they weaken the power of VNO-NCW, traditionally one of the most powerful lobby organizations in The Hague.
‘Friend of the Malietoren’
According to the CBL and Jumbo, their departure is primarily due to the new structure for the contribution that members must pay to VNO-NCW, based on the wage bill. Companies in the retail sector should pay more, other sectors less. According to experts, CBL and RND see contributions increasing from 200,000 euros per organization per year to double. It is not known how much Ahold Delhaize and Jumbo have to pay.
“The reason for the CBL’s termination is, on the one hand, the high increase in membership fees, which on the other hand raised the question of whether the retail sector received sufficient return in the lobby,” says a spokesperson for the CBL. “In a sector with low margins, it is important to make the right decisions when it comes to these types of high costs.”
Jumbo has canceled its membership as of January 1, 2027 “due to the high costs,” says a spokesperson. “As a supermarket, we are always critical of costs and in this case we have taken the decision not to prosecute our membership.”
As an employers’ organization, the CBL continues to “pull on the same side of the rope as VNO,” says the spokesperson. “And we also remain friends of the Malietoren.” The head office of VNO-NCW is located there.
‘On balance not a disaster’
With the supermarkets, VNO-NCW loses one of the largest employers in the Netherlands. Approximately 300,000 people work in the supermarket sector. The total retail trade, including supermarkets, accounts for more than 100,000 800,000 employees.
Four years ago, CBL director found Marc Jansen that it is valuable to be a member of the employers’ association. “So that we can also discuss topics that transcend our sector. We have a lot of contact with non-food retail, which partly has the same interests.”
According to De Telegraaf, the retail sector, which has relatively many lower-paid employees as well as part-time employees, believes that VNO-NCW has not lobbied sufficiently against the increase in the minimum youth wage. Over the past five years, this has risen faster than collective labor agreement wages and inflation. The minimum youth wage is now 14.99 euros per hour.
Fragmentation is not good for employers
“The supermarkets have really had something to worry about,” the new chairman of VNO-NCW, Coen van Oostrom, said on the radio on Monday. “If you are a retailer, I understand that you say: dear VNO, have you taken good care of us? I understand that question.”
According to Van Oostrom, the departure of the supermarkets is “on balance not a disaster” for VNO-NCW and for the support of his organization in discussions with the government. Reform of socio-economic policy is once again firmly on the political agenda.
The Jetten cabinet wants, among other things, to increase the retirement age, force employers to employ self-employed people who do the same work as colleagues and shorten the duration of unemployment benefits from two to one year.
Dirk Mulder, retail sector banker at ING, states that the conflict between the retail sector and VNO-NCW is damaging the position of employers. “No one in the business community benefits from this conflict. Fragmentation is not good for employers, especially now that social security reforms are on the table.”