Healthcare unions go to court over compensation for on-call shifts

The trade unions in the healthcare sector have agreed to go to court over the remuneration of on-call services of hospital employees. “Hospitals are converting these services into so-called on-call services, for which lower pay applies,” complain FNV Zorg & Welzijn, CNV, NU'91, and FBZ. According to the unions, consultations on this issue have not yielded any results.

An employee can be called to a shift in unforeseen circumstances if there is work to be done that cannot be postponed. In an on-call shift, someone can be called to do regular work where it is not known in advance exactly when it needs to be done.

According to the unions, there are “more and more signals from hospital employees” that they are being assigned to an on-call shift, even though it is regular work. According to a spokesperson, not all hospitals are to blame. The unions will therefore take legal action against individual hospitals. It has not yet been decided which hospital will be sued first.