NS still foresees staffing challenges, scaled-down timetables despite labor agreement

Although the NS and trade unions have reached a tentative agreement, it has not ended all of the problems at the national rail operator, NS President Bert Groenewegen warned. The personnel shortage still means the NS will have to scale down its timetable.

Groenewegen said he is pleased that an agreement with negotiators from the trade unions FNV, CNV, VVMC and VHS was reached on Sunday. "With this proposal, we are meeting colleagues who are concerned about the rising cost of living," Groenewegen explained on the NS website.

"At the same time, this collective labor agreement is not yet the solution for everything that is going on," the president went on. "NS is keeping an eye on the concerns of colleagues about work pressure, job satisfaction and the shortage of workers. Unfortunately, this shortage of colleagues means that we have to scale down our timetable. All of this puts us before us a difficult task that is not easy to solve, but which we are fully working on and continuing to work on."

There will be fewer trains in September and the next step will be taken in December to offer employees some air after a busy period. In a letter with which the NS brought the trade unions back to the negotiating table last week, the company said it had paid too little attention to the workload among NS staff. "We can't say anything about additional downscaling at the moment. But if we say that there was too little attention for the workload, you could draw the conclusion that there will be a change, of course."

Asked about the usefulness of the strikes in recent weeks, an NS spokesperson says that the actions "were a very clear message."

"You don't just go on strike," the spokesperson said. "Those actions really indicated the urgency with which something had to be done."

The nearly 19,000 NS employees will receive a considerably higher wage in two steps if union members agree to the negotiated result. The NS cannot say whether this will make train tickets more expensive. This is because all kinds of agreements have been made with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management.

"We are bound by quite a few rules when determining the price for a train ticket," the NS spokesperson said. "We are not allowed to do much more than an inflation correction, although inflation is of course very high now."

The potential agreement between the trade unions and the NS is "a first piece of the puzzle in a much larger task" for train traffic, says director Freek Bos of passenger association Rover. Traveling by train must become more attractive than it is now and this includes "happy staff," he believes.

The passenger association is pleased that the strikes by NS personnel have been canceled for the time being. But the railways continue to face major challenges, Bos said. Rover wants many more people to travel by train, which means ticket prices must decrease and trains have to run more often.

"But of course there is a staff shortage, so you will have to run more trains with the same number of people." A higher wage can motivate people to achieve this, Bos said. "And the NS has to work on innovations." In addition, the government should lend a hand by lowering the VAT on a train ticket.