Pharmacies to close during Christmas week due to national strike

Pharmacies throughout the country are going to close for three days next week due to a strike by their employees. They will not be working on Monday, December 23, Tuesday, and Friday, December 27. “Because Wednesday and Thursday are closed for Christmas, this means that many public pharmacies will be closed for the whole week of Christmas,” said the trade unions FNV and CNV.

It is the second national pharmacy strike after the first one took place on November 12. Around 10,000 employees gathered on the Malieveld in The Hague on that occasion. According to FNV and CNV, that was the first national pharmacy strike in history.

The unions admitted that it is not ideal that patients will not be able to visit the pharmacy he added that "the insurance companies and employers ensured that it has gone this far. This is absolutely necessary."

FNV and CNV want salaries to be increased retroactively from July 1 by at least six percent. They also want the minimum wage to be raised to 16 euros an hour and more measures to reduce work pressure. In addition, the unions want employees to be paid for the time that they lose while preparing for the work day.

Employers offered a two percent increase from July 1, and a five percent increase from July next year. They say that they cannot go higher than this because of the policies set by insurers and the government.

The pharmacy workers started their protest in November punctuality actions. When that did not have the desired result, they followed it up with ten regional strikes in all the provinces. They first lasted half a day and then a full day. The national strike happened halfway through November.