Staff at over 50 hospitals will go on strike next month

The staff of at least 50 hospitals across the Netherlands will go on strike next month, the trade unions announced on Tuesday. The affected hospitals will run on “Sunday service,” providing only emergency care. The willingness to take action is high, and the unions expect more hospitals to join by the time the strike happens in mid-March.

The hospital workers are striking for a better collective bargaining agreement. Trade unions FNV, CNV, NU’91, and FBZ gave the association of Dutch hospitals NVZ until noon today to agree to their demands. The NVZ said it couldn’t, so the unions will move on to labor actions.

The four healthcare unions insisted on a 10 percent wage increase in the one-year deal, a bonus for working irregular hours that is on top of the regular wage, and an additional 100 euros. They also want workers to be reimbursed for parking or when they use public transportation for their commute to the job. “Furthermore, the employee must be given the right to be unreachable at times when he or she is not scheduled,” the unions said in their ultimatum.

“In an economy in which healthcare professionals already often struggle to make ends meet financially, the NVZ's final offer is unacceptable. This is because the expected inflation is higher than what the NVZ has put on the table,” said Stella Salden from NU’91 last week when unions issued the ultimatum.

The NVZ said it simply could not comply with the unions’ demands but would like to negotiate further. The NVZ said it was surprised that the unions issued an ultimatum. “And that while we had made constructive progress under external guidance. Labor actions are extremely disproportionate in relation to the final offer of 13% (wage increase) in 2 years' time,” said NVZ chairman Ad Melkert.

The collective labor agreement for hospitals covers over 200,000 employees in 65 hospitals and 14 rehabilitation centers. The unions didn’t say exactly when the strike would start, only saying it would happen in “mid-March.”