Threats about losing your days of leave, transferring your work to another location and noting your name if you, as an employee, plan to take action for a better collective labor agreement. The atmosphere at fragrance and flavoring manufacturer International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), which has a branch in Tilburg, is subdued, to say the least.
IFF employees want better employment conditions. To be precise: 7 percent salary is allowed for them. The production company makes fragrances and flavorings for drinks, sweets, perfume and detergents and has 1,000 employees in Tilburg and Hilversum.
The collective labor agreement expired last New Year, which, according to the FNV trade union, would be the perfect opportunity to include inflation and salary increases in the pay slips. “But the management is stuck on an offer of a 3.5 percent pay increase and a one-off 5 percent,” says FNV. And the employees don’t agree with that. But according to them, anyone who wants to take action against this can count on compelling opposition from above.
“Downright rude.”
“Managers and supervisors record the names of employees who want to take action, or are in discussions with other colleagues about taking action,” says FNV. “Downright rude,” the director of FNV Process Industry calls it. They have been trying to reach a good collective labor agreement through consultation since mid-October, but so far without success. “There is no discussion about schemes that will allow employees to retire healthily.”
“We are hopeful that we can reach an agreement soon.”
IFF does not recognize the problems. “We have made every effort to reach a fair agreement with several offers. We are disappointed with the outcome of our discussions with the unions,” IFF said. “But we are hopeful that we can still reach an agreement quickly.”
IFF does not say how exactly they want to do that. The threats in the workplace are neither confirmed nor denied. “Any allegation of misconduct is taken very seriously and addressed appropriately,” the company said.
So the atmosphere remains subdued in the Tilburg head office. IFF was given until Friday afternoon to respond to the wage demands. “If that does not happen, people will take action and we do not rule out strikes,” said an FNV spokesperson.