9 December 2021
During the collective agreement negotiations on Friday, December 3, the employers a new offer done. Jan Kampherbeek, union executive at CNV: “Unfortunately, it was only a tiny bit better than the previous offer. This is not making any progress at all. A new collective agreement before Christmas will be difficult this way.” Renate Bos, his counterpart at FNV: “Cleaners are getting worse this way.”
Employers' organisation Schoonmakend Nederland on Friday came up with a new wage offer. In it, 3 per cent would be added by 1 April 2022, 2.5 per cent by 1 April 2023 and 1.65 per cent by 1 April 2024. Start date is 1 January 2022 and the collective agreement would then last until 1 September 2024. “Actually, they only pushed forward a quarter of a percent,” Bos responded. “We want real price compensation and that is not being offered. That means that people lose out because they can hand that wage right back to the supermarket or housing association.”
Tricky issue: retiring earlier
The second issue where negotiations are stalled is earlier retirement, Bos notes. This now applies for up to 1 year before the effective date of the state pension age. It will last until 31 December 2025. Employers wanted to push through stopping one year before AOW, unions wanted three years. The compromise, two years, seemed within reach and, according to Schoonmakend Nederland, already concluded. Bos: “But, we are concerned with the whole package. And then we see that the RVU scheme is actually not very affordable for our cleaners, because they are often in part-time jobs.”
Generation pact
Bos therefore sees more benefit in the generation pact. With that, you have three elements that are linked: working less means less pay and less pension accrual. “We agreed in 2018 at the previous collective bargaining negotiations to look at that. The proposal now on the table from employers is that, as a cleaner, you can work one day less three years before your aow. This is different from stopping work three years earlier in what is, after all, a really tough profession. In short, it is not a solution from employers.”
Interim proposal
The unions want hotel cleaners to regain what they believe to be the normal allowance on weekends and public holidays. Kampherbeek: “We understand that for the employers it might be a big step all at once. That is why we have made an interim proposal. Everyone working in cleaning for more than 12.5 years will get the normal allowance. The others in 2023 a part and in 2024 completely. Far too expensive, according to the cleaning companies. Then hotels would start doing the cleaning themselves, which would be even worse for the cleaners. CNV Schoonmaak thinks this is nonsense. There are already far too few hotel cleaners. That will remain so for some time.”
Annual hours standard with schedule
There is also no agreement yet on the annual hours standard. With the annual hours standard, you make a contract with employees stating how many hours they work per year, but you can use those hours flexibly. You can then work more at peak times and less during quieter periods, but your pay is stable. Flexibility is then counterbalanced by income security. Bos thinks it is important that along with the annual hours standard, an annual schedule is also made. “We are not unsympathetic to the annual hours standard in certain sectors, but it cannot be that you can always be placed anywhere under the guise of annual hours. No, with that standard comes a roster. Whether such a schedule for the whole year is difficult to make? It's not that difficult. In stadiums, you know exactly when they play football and in parks you can draw out the crowds for holidays.”
Pay second year of illness to 100 per cent
The Absenteeism Committee remains a thorny issue. Cleaners Netherlands wants to abolish it because too few useful files are coming in. Unions disagree. Until now, the Commission has been looking at files to see how absenteeism management in the sector is going. Bos: “That Commission is simply doing a good job. Of course, we also see that the biggest problem in cleaning is short-term absenteeism and that the focus should be on the front end. But if the Commission is abolished, cleaners will no longer be able to object to a reduction in their wages in the second year of illness. This is why we argued in the negotiations: if the Commission is to be abolished, then wages in the second year of illness must go to 100 per cent. We did not yet hear a no on that from the employers.”
Not good enough
“It's not good enough,” Bos said in conclusion. “I am an optimistic person, but I am holding my heart for Friday. We are well into injury time.” Collective bargaining will continue on Friday, 10 December. That is the last day scheduled. What is put on the table there, Bos will submit to the cleaners“ government and the cleaners” parliament. These are representative bodies of cleaners. “About what is there now, the government was not satisfied,” he said. December 17, the cleaners' parliament will meet. "Then we will vote on the total package. We are not concluding an agreement on parts. So then it will also become clear whether we can accept the offer or take action."
English (UK)