Trade unions critical of new government's planned cuts to civil service, benefits

Trade unions are appalled by the PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB government’s plans to make cuts in civil service, welfare benefits, and minimum wage. The FNV called the agreement a “direct attack” on the trade union movement. CNV said that social security, a term so often used in the election campaigns, turned out to be an “empty phrase” for the new coalition.

The budget for the new coalition’s mainline agreement shows that the parties plan to reverse the planned increase to the minimum wage, freeze civil servants’ wages for one year, and cut unemployment benefits and other social security benefits. The wage freeze for civil servants was called a “zero line” in the budget. The new coalition wants to cut spending on civil servants by around a fifth.

“We expected that the public sector and employees would be targeted, but this goes beyond all bounds,” FNV chairman Tuur Elzinga told ANP. “The announced zero line for civil servants and cuts to unemployment benefits and other social security are a direct attack on the trade union movement. There is no need for this, the government finances are in excellent health. We will prepare for a tough fight against these disastrous plans.”

The agreement includes multiple plans to improve purchasing power and prevent poverty, including reducing the healthcare deductible by half from 2027 and pushing more money into the child-related budget and rent allowance from next year. The parties also plan to make childcare “almost free” for working parents.

But according to Elzinga, the promised improvement to Dutch people’s social security mainly consists of plans “financed with cuts that actually undermine social security.” That also includes reversing planned additional expenditure for healthcare and education, he said.

CNV chairman Piet Fortuin also feels that the PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB missed the mark on social security. “With this agreement, they significantly affected the financial position of millions of workers,” he told the news wire.

Fortuin expects that the cuts will affect working people, especially those with low incomes. The fact that minimum wages won’t increase and unemployment benefits will be shorted “is big alarm bells for us,” he said.

The new coalition’s mainline agreement states that they plan to help “specific groups subsistence minimum, including the working poor.” However, the trade unions fail to see how that will work with the plans stated in the agreement.