wage increase

KLM pilots are threatening to strike if the Dutch airline does not respond to their demands for a better collective bargaining agreement before Friday, the Telegraaf reports based on a letter pilots' union VNV sent to its members.

The pilots demand a lighter workload and a wage increase, according to the newspaper. The negotiations between KLM and VNV have been deadlocked since VNV members rejected the proposed collective bargaining agreement in May. A spokesperson for KLM confirmed to the Telegraaf that the negotiations are "in a difficult phase". 

Trade unions FNV and CNV reached an agreement with regional public transporters about a new collective bargaining agreement. The nationwide strike that halted bus transport and some train traffic since Wednesday, is therefore over. From Monday everything will run as usual, the unions announced on Sunday, Omroep Brabant reports.

A regional public transit strike union FNV announced on Tuesday will start on Monday, be nationwide and will last as long it takes. The strike will affect regional buses and trains operated by regional transporters throughout the country, NU.nl reports.

The outlook for the Netherlands economy is still positive, the International Monetary Fund said in its annual report on the Netherlands. The IMF again raised concerns about the growth of wages in the country being smaller than other countries with comparable economies. Annual wage growth in the Netherlands is around 1 percent, too little to compensate for inflation, the IMF said, NOS and ANP report.

The Dutch government will not take any concrete measures to help Air France-KLM cope with the unrest on the French side of the airline, Minister Wopke Hoekstra of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Hugo de Jonge both said, in different words, on Wednesday, NU.nl reports.

Air France employees are striking for a 5 percent wage increase. The strikes cost Air France 75 million euros so far, and resulted in the resignation of Air France-KLM's CEO last week. 

Transavia pilots are on strike until noon on Monday, resulting in around 30 Transavia flights being delayed or canceled - 18 from Schiphol, six from Rotterdam and six from Eindhoven Airport. Only departures are affected by the strike. Arrivals are still on schedule, NU.nl reports.

The strike actually started at midnight, but the first affected flight was only scheduled to depart around 6:00 a.m. 

Primary school teachers across the Netherlands will strike on Thursday, October 5th in an attempt to push the government to increase their salaries, unions CNV Education and FNV announced. 

"Politicians really need to pay up, we want a fair salary and less work pressure in primary education", CNV Education chairman Loek Schueler said to news wire ANP. "The vague commitments politics made so far are insufficient for structurally better education."

The Netherlands' labor market is doing fantastically - unemployment continues to fall, just like unemployment benefits, and vacancies are on the rise. But the wages in the country are lagging behind the economic recovery and that must change, Christine Lagarde, director of the International Monetary Fund, said in Luxembourg on Thursday, Metro reports.

The Dutch government expects to make nearly 8 billion euros more on taxes and premiums than estimated on Budget Day last year, according to the Spring Memo sent to parliament by Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem on Thursday. The extra money mainly comes from VAT (€2.4 billion), corporate tax (€2.3 billion) and wage and income tax (€1.2 billion), NU.nl reports.

The Spring Memo shows the changes the government made since the budget was presented on Budget Day in September last year.

KLM CEO Pieter Elbers thinks it currently more important to invest in new aircraft and equipment than to increase wages for the airline's employees, he said in an internal webcast for employees that Het Parool managed to see. The airline wants to invest another 2 billion euros over the next four years, but that will not go towards wage increases.

The collective bargaining salaries increased by 1.4 percent in 2015, the biggest increase since 2012. In 2014 they increased by only 0.9 percent. The increase was especially significant in the public sector, according to figures released by Statistics Netherlands on Thursday.