Pantar Amsterdam employees will take a work break on May 9

FNV visits Bantar, site of Zeeburg, early in the morning. From Zeeburg, the landscape and public spaces staff depart for central Amsterdam, among others. A similar work stop would follow at the Kriekenoord in Diemen.

National action

Employees sign a letter while off work. In this letter, employees invite Minister Karola Schotten (SZW) and Raymond Ficken, boss of employers during the collective labor agreement negotiations, to come to the national campaign in The Hague on 7 June. Through the procedure in The Hague, employees make it clear that they are worth the same value as other employees. Pantar indicated that he supports the measures and gives employees space to attend the national event on June 7.

Two sizes measure

Joost Kaper, Director of FNV Social Work Companies: ‘We have been telling the VNG for months that there are no additional funds for employees at protected work companies. The money must first come from the minister before the VNG can do anything. But municipal officials have been compensated with better collective agreements, although there is no financial cover from The Hague for this yet. So it is possible, but VNG deliberately applies double standards. While employees at Pantar and other social work companies already earn the bare minimum and can barely afford daily groceries. These employees also earn more, because they are not less.

High rates of inflation

Since May 2022, the FNV has advocated for additional agreements to the SW collective labor agreement and the Getting Started collective labor agreement, which covers approximately 90,000 employees with an occupational disability. The two collective labor agreements were concluded at a time when inflation was not yet on the rise. The union wants all wages in these collective agreements to increase by 10.15% retroactively from January 1, 2023. The travel allowance must also be adjusted for higher fuel costs. This means an increase from 0.10 euros to 0.21 cents per kilometer. Kaper: ‘Employees now sometimes have to choose between being able to pay for public transportation to go to work or to go shopping.