Public transport strikes likely in the Netherlands as unions end talks without a deal

Trade unions FNV and CNV expect further strikes across regional public transport after rejecting employers' latest wage agreement offer. Both unions said they were highly dissatisfied with the final proposal submitted on Friday and doubt their members will approve it. FNV called the negotiations "a waste of time." Previous strike action had been put on hold to allow discussions over a new collective labor agreement (CLA) to continue.

The unions announced earlier this month that they intended to organize weekly strikes until Christmas. They carried out one day of industrial action before suspending further strikes to resume negotiations with employers' association VWOV last week. Talks over a new collective labor agreement had previously collapsed in July.

FNV is calling for a 6 percent pay increase. Unions are demanding an automatic increase in pay tied to the CBS inflation rate, more limits to flexible deployment of staff to decrease work pressure and make schedules a little more certain.

Employers want to stop paying for overtime based on an average number of hours, but instead based on the actual number of overtime hours worked. Also changes to personal development budgets and scaling back early retirement schemes.

"The final offer is not enough," an FNV spokesperson said. She explained that the unions will still present the proposal to their members because they are required to do so.

CNV negotiator Niels Rook said he was "deeply disappointed" with the outcome of the negotiations. He argued that the talks had made no meaningful progress and that employers continued to push for worse employment conditions. "Taken together, it is simply too much for us to accept," he said.

Rook said further strike action was now increasingly likely. "And we would do so with great disappointment," he added.

Around 13,000 workers are covered by the collective labor agreement.