Entrepreneurs fear labor disputes over salary inflation adjustment | Work

Interpolis has started to investigate what is going on with entrepreneurs during corona time. The past two years have mainly revolved around corona-related matters, but now the concerns about rising inflation are taking over.

In the survey, one fifth of SMEs say they expect that this will lead to an increase in labor disputes with employees in the coming period. A third think this will be due to friction about how inflation is passed on in salary.

According to Interpolis, it is the first time that SMEs have so emphatically indicated that they are concerned about the impact of increasing inflation and how they should deal with it. According to director of companies René Voets, entrepreneurs are in a difficult situation with the high inflation and increasing staff shortages and they cannot always pass on inflation one on one in the prices.

Voets: ,,Then you, as an employer, are faced with the question of how you can reduce your costs. One option is to do something about the salary. But that creates tensions and that is something that you should not want in the current tight labor market. But that is something that concerns employers.”

In particular, entrepreneurs should not unilaterally adjust the working conditions, as some employers did at the start of the pandemic. For example, they opted for a different policy with regard to more or fewer hours, or they started imposing or decreasing vacation days. This led to many labor disputes.

In any event, Interpolis figures show that the number of reports of industrial disputes has not increased so far. Legal service provider DAS also sees no increase. According to employment law lawyer Pascal Besselink, it would be unwise for an employer to let it come to a conflict.

An analysis he recently made of the approximately 120 rulings made by judges in corona-related cases showed that employers who tried to pass the costs on to staff were whistled back by the judge.

Besselink doubts whether it will actually lead to more labor disputes. Due to the shortage on the labor market, he believes that employers will shoot themselves in the foot if they do not comply with the working conditions or try to adjust them. “Then an employee will probably quickly choose another employer,” he thinks.

According to MKB-Nederland, it is difficult to predict whether the situation may lead to more labor disputes in the future. What is clear, according to the entrepreneurs’ organisation, is that many entrepreneurs are concerned.

According to spokesperson Mieke Ripken, there are already companies that have to (partly) shut down their production due to a shortage of raw materials, which leads to major concerns about the consequences of all this on the operating result. ,,It is important that there is mutual understanding; employers and employees are in the same boat, we are all ‘impoverishing’ at the moment”, says the spokeswoman.

At the same time, she emphasizes that compensation for high inflation and a decline in purchasing power due to external factors cannot be left to entrepreneurs. “That is a government job. This is certainly not possible with an inflation of 12 percent. In addition, wage increases are structural and this extremely high inflation is temporary. So no matter how painful and annoying, we will not solve this problem through wages.”

In a reaction, the Christian National Trade Union (CNV) says it is shocked by the results of the Interpolis study. According to chairman Piet Fortuin, it is recognizable that in times of high inflation and lagging wages, uncertainty among employees increases. “That is why we are committed to achieving the best possible result at the negotiating table,” he adds.

He does not see a strong increase in the number of labor disputes for the time being, but he suspects that things could become exciting in the coming period, especially if the corona support stops. This is in line with what employers’ association AWVN previously predicted: the collective labor agreement negotiations will become increasingly difficult in the coming period if the war in Ukraine continues for longer. AWVN has already pointed out that there is more labor unrest in various companies and industries.

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