4 Collective bargaining in the transport
SECTOR
4.1 Collective bargaining in the Netherlands
Before discussing the number and coverage of collective agreements in road transport
and civil aviation, a brief introduction on the general framework of collective bargaining
in The Netherlands will be given. In collective wage-setting, the contractual freedom of
collective bargaining is the most important principle; all associations that statutory are
allowed to represent employees and to undertake negotiations with an employer or an
employer’s association, may freely and on equal footing agree on a collective wage
agreement for employees in a certain domain. In the Netherlands, collective bargaining
on wages and employment conditions predominantly takes place at sector-level but also
at company level. Sector-level collective agreements have a legally binding status to the
companies that are members of the signatory parties and may be generally extended by
the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment to non-organised firms. In the case of
general extension, non-membership of an employers’ association does not lead to
derogation from the collective wage agreement. Apart from collective wage agreements,
the sector-level social partners also conclude agreements on the establishment of
collective funds for education and vocational training, early retirement schemes,
pensions, social funds. These collective funds are managed by bipartite sector-level
foundations. Overall, there are 1273 collective wage agreements known to the Ministry of
Social Affairs and Employment. Of these agreements, 185 are regular sectoral
agreements with 200 related (sectoral) agreements on pre-pension, education and
training, social funds etc.; and 767 regular company collective agreements with 121
related (company) agreements, also on the aforementioned themes. 5.7 million employees
are covered by regular collective wage agreements, of which 4.9 million employees (86
%) by sector-level agreements and 800,000 employees (14 %) by firm-level agreements.
Of the 4.9 million employees covered by sectoral agreements, 4.4 million employees (77
%) are covered directly; the remaining 500.000 (9 %) are covered as a consequence of the
general extension of the agreements to non-organised firms (SZW 2000).
Since 1982, the government has abstained from active intervention in wage setting,
although the Wage Act (1970, amended in 1987) permits specific wage freezing measures
by the state in case of extreme economic decline. Although sector-level social partners
have a de facto bargaining autonomy, bargaining policy is to a certain extent co-ordinated
at national level by the confederations of capital and labour. The national-level social
partners thus have a role in collective bargaining. National-level consultation between
management and labour takes place in the Foundation of Labour (Stichting van de
Arbeid, STAR). Founded in 1945, the Foundation of Labour is a private bipartite
foundation established by the social partners, in which consultation between the
employers’ associations VNO-NCW, MKB Nederland, LTO Nederland, and the trade
union federations FNV, CNV and Unie MHP takes place. Agreements reached between
15