Catering employees will receive a pay increase of 8 to 12 percent, it is said agreed in the new catering collective labor agreement which negotiators agreed on Friday. The so-called skilled workers, employees with extensive experience in the sector, will benefit the most from the new scheme. They form the largest group of the 478,000 catering employees in the Netherlands.
These permanent employees are extra advantaged by the collective labor agreement because they have not benefited from the increases in the minimum wage for some time, according to FNV director Edwin Vlek. Chairman of Koninklijke Horeca Nederland (KHN) Marijke Vuik says that employees who earn less, such as those who work in the catering industry as a side job, will also make “significant progress” because the minimum wage will increase by 9.5 percent at the beginning of 2024. Agreements have been made about overtime to maintain the private-work balance and, for the first time, internship allowances are also included in the collective labor agreement. The union members still have to agree to the submitted collective labor agreement agreements, it is very likely that they will do so.
Vuik emphasizes that many entrepreneurs “have to turn over every euro three times” anyway and that a wage increase is therefore necessary but also difficult. It is indeed true that the catering industry is not having an easy time due to decreased profit margins, corona debts and staff shortages. In the first half of 2023, 4,000 catering entrepreneurs closed, compared to 3,400 in the same period in 2022. 141 businesses also went bankrupt, more than in the entire year of 2022.
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