Cabinet bends to union’s national strike threat, will negotiate early retirement deal

The trade union FNV's demands for an early retirement scheme for people with heavy jobs that they sent to the Tweede Kamer are negotiable for the Cabinet. Minister Eddy van Hijum (Social Affairs) said this during a debate in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament.

"When I look at FNV's letter, I don't see any stumbling blocks to a good substantive conversation," said the minister. The unions rejected the Cabinet's first proposal. They will only continue the conversation when they receive guarantees that there will be a permanent arrangement in place of the temporary one, which expires soon.

This comes after FNV had threatened lengthy strikes in various sectors for the coming month. Earlier this month, cleaners at Schiphol Airport protested for a better early retirement scheme.

Furthermore, the trade union wants employers to be allowed to pay a higher amount of early retirement without a tax penalty. According to FNV, which professions are classified as heavy should be regulated in collective labor agreement negotiations.

"I just really want a good arrangement," Van Hijum told the Tweede Kamer. And he wants to "get out of the polder as soon as possible." But, he emphasized, a good distinction is essential to prevent too many people from being able to stop working earlier.

The minister promised to consider the parties' wishes during the negotiations. Many parties came up with propositions to improve the scheme. Currently, the scheme does not allow people with heavy work and a low income to retire earlier, while people with office jobs can. Almost all the parties spoke out their wish to correct this.

According to GroenLinks-PvdA and SP, a higher threshold amount could help with this. However, their proposition to double this is too far for Van Hijum. The minister does see space for negotiation, although he stopped short of naming a number.

Thierry Aartsen of the VVD said that the definition of a heavy job should be pre-determined. This can be done by limiting the number of collective bargaining agreements with an early retirement scheme. The left-wing parties fear that people who do heavy jobs will miss out on the scheme due to this.

Luc Stultiens of GroenLinks-PvdA assumes that employers will avoid spending money on early retirement for people who do not need it.

FNV was "pleasantly surprised" by Van Hijum's comments. "We are especially pleasantly surprised because these solutions have been on the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment desk for nine months, and none of this was reflected in the minister's proposal. Our actions like exploratory talks and handing in written propositions seemed to have fallen on deaf ears at the ministry," said the union.

The trade union emphasized that the minister does not need to worry about high costs for the State. "'FNV has already indicated that the sectors themselves must pay the costs of this scheme. The minister also does not have to fear that a good scheme will increase the number of vacancies or cause the labor market to grow skewed. A good permanent scheme for heavy work enables employees also to perform this work," the union stated.

The union now wants a "clarifying conversation" with the minister to clarify the situation before further negotiations can be held on the content. FNV plans to invite the minister to do this.