Dutch Employment Woes: Talks with trade unions break down

AMSTERDAM: Hundreds of thousands of Dutch workers will begin several weeks of protests and work disruptions after talks with the government about pay and conditions broke down, the largest trade union federation said on Saturday. The FNV said negotiations on behalf of 700,000 workers, including police and ambulance staff, metal workers, and civil servants stalled over wage demands and a deadline set for the government had lapsed. “The limit has been reached at the negotiating table,” Ton Heerts, head of the FNV, said in a statement. “Employers keep coming to the table with worse terms for collective labour agreements, while people have been giving up salary for years.” Under the Dutch labour system, large scale employers, including the government and private sector companies, negotiate long-term, collective labour agreements with trade unions.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2015.

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