NS and the negotiating unions CNV, FNV and VVMC reached a collective labor agreement on Sunday morning. The unions will now present the agreement to their members and suspend the strikes announced for next week until then, FNV Spoor reports.
The agreement includes the introduction of the minimum wage of 14 euros and a structural wage increase of 9.25 percent in the collective labor agreement that takes effect on 1 July next year and runs for 18 months. The FNV also reports ‘inflation repair’ as a result of the negotiations, while the focus was on the broader ‘automatic price compensation’: a compensation for employees against depreciation that can be adjusted as inflation rises.
Member consultation
Whether the agreement is sufficient to remove the dissatisfaction among NS staff, “the members determine, of course,” writes FNV Spoor in a press statement. Several (digital) information sessions will follow, in which the unions will present the result of the negotiations to their members.
That this is not a foregone conclusion became apparent during the collective labor agreement negotiations in regional transport. In March, the trade unions and employers agreed on a collective labor agreement. That was approved by CNV members, but rejected by FNV members. The CNV did not participate in recent strikes in regional transport, but the FNV did.
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