After months of labor unrest, the journalists’ union NVJ and the two major newspaper publishers in the Netherlands, DPG and Mediahuis, have agreed on wage increases for 2024 and 2025. This has removed an important obstacle in the collective labor agreement negotiations that have been dragging on for months.
A four-hour strike at newspapers prepared for this Tuesday morning has been canceled for the time being due to this development. If a collective labor agreement for the entire sector is subsequently reached with other employers and unions, it must still be approved by the members of the unions before it comes into effect.
Even before the summer, employees were trying to convince newspaper publishers to compensate them for the high inflation of the past two years. They also demanded that from now on the salaries of freelancers be equal to those of employees with a permanent contract.
Short work stoppage
In September and October, editors loved NRC and other newspapers a short work stoppage to strengthen their demands. At the end of November, newsrooms stopped work for an hour and websites were not updated. After employees threatened employers with an ultimatum last week, DPG and Mediahuis agreed to a package that the NVJ finds acceptable.
According to the agreement now made, the wage increase for 2024 for lower incomes will be larger than that for higher incomes, ranging from approximately 11 to 8 percent, according to NVJ negotiator Wais Shirbaz. As of January 1, 2025, another 2 percent will be added for all employees (with the agreement that negotiations can be reopened if inflation exceeds 4 percent). Freelancers will also be included in these increases.
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