Agreement reached in police contract talks: report

The police unions, the Ministry of Justice and Security and the National Police Chief reached a new collective bargaining agreement for the police on Friday. All labor actions by the police are scrapped, sources said to NOS.

The unions, Ministry and police chief negotiated for hours on Thursday night. Early on Friday morning union ACP chairman Gerrit van de Kamp told Radio 1 Journaal that they were still struggling to agree on two points. The two points were possible earlier retirement for older police officers and more capacity for investigation. "There have been steps, but that is not enough", Van de Kamp said. "We have to see if we can come up with something in the coming hours. We will first discuss with our executives and management and let them know how far we are now, and maybe there will still be a solution."

The police threatened with a major labor action if no agreement was reached by Friday evening. The unions called on police officers to only respond to emergencies over the weekend, and to not do any of their other duties. Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security filed summary proceedings to try and stop this action. The case was scheduled to appear in the court in The Hague at 2:00 p.m. on Friday.

"Many of our members are certainly angry and think they have the right to take this action, especially given the situation they are in", Van de Kamp said to NU.nl on Friday morning. "The goal for us is to conclude a good collective labor agreement. For us it is about results."