Planned strike at Dutch university hospitals cancelled after new labour deal

A planned nationwide day of industrial action at university medical centers on Thursday, April 16 will no longer go ahead. Two healthcare unions say they have reached further agreements with employers’ group UMCNL over the collective labor agreement. The unions LAD and FBZ had previously staged Sunday work actions in Nijmegen and Maastricht in protest, while FNV, CNV, and NU’91 had already accepted the deal.

The LAD, representing salaried physicians, and the FBZ, a federation of healthcare professional associations, had pushed for revised employment terms aimed at helping medical specialists stay healthy and active in the workforce for longer. New agreements include continued payment of allowances during pregnancy, a reduction of the age threshold for evening and night shifts from 62 to 60, and clearer rules on how the mandatory eight-hour rest period after a shift should be applied.

UMCNL expressed relief that the cancelled day of industrial action will spare patients disruption and avoid unrest among university medical center staff. The organization said the new agreements provide a foundation for developing a sustainable framework for contracts and shift patterns for academic medical specialists. It added that it had gone “to the limit” in accommodating the demands of LAD and FBZ.

LAD chair Suzanne Booij said: “We have shown UMCNL that it must pay attention to the wellbeing of medical specialists, and thereby to the wellbeing of patients. As a result, it has become clear that sustainable employability is not an afterthought. It is the foundation of future-proof healthcare.”

The FBZ represents about 45,000 healthcare professionals across a range of disciplines, including organizations for embryologists, dentists, midwives, psychologists, and physiotherapists. The LAD has roughly 35,000 members.