the social partners in the Foundation of Labour are not legally binding and have the
character of recommendations to the affiliated organisations and lower-level bargaining
tables to discuss and implement agreements reached on certain issues into sectoral and
company collective wage agreements. The affiliated sector-level labour unions and
associations are under no formal obligation to follow these central-level
recommendations, and formal mechanisms to co-ordinate the outcomes of bargaining do
not exist. Figures from the Labour Inspectorate of the Ministry of Social Affairs and
Employment however reveal that many policy goals set by the Foundation of Labour also
reappear in the collective wage agreements and that means are made available to
implement them.
Over the course of the 1990s, the Foundation of Labour has been productive in publishing
broad agendas for collective bargaining in at industry and enterprise level. The ‘Agenda
2002’ (published in 1997) set the agenda for collective bargaining during the years 1997-
2002. Starting point of Agenda 2002 is the continuation of decentralisation of collective
bargaining that has been started in 1982, in which tailor-made agreements should be
reached between employers and employees at company-level. Such developments are
acceptable for the national trade union confederations and employers’ associations as
long as the wage increase takes into account the profitability and labour market situation
of particular sectors and companies (STAR, 26-10-1999). Furthermore, Agenda 2002
foresees a new balance between employment flexibility and employment security on the
labour market by protecting the temporary work agency workers and relaxing the
dismissal protection of incumbent employees. In Agenda 2002, is also recognized that
both employers and employees have an interest in measures that increase the
employability and mobility of workers. Recommendations and suggestions are made for
themes relevant to collective bargaining: on wage policy, working time, employability,
combining work and family life, older workers, integrating the unemployed and working
conditions. As will see below, in transport and aviation many of theses issues are taken
up by the actors involved in collective bargaining.
4.2 Collective bargaining in road transport
There are five multi-employer collective wage agreements in the road transport sector:
three for the different categories of people's transport (public transport, private transport
by bus and transport by taxi) and two for the road haulage of freight. All agreements are
signed by the representative organisations for the respective sectors and on labour union’s
side by FNV Bondgenoten and CNV Bedrijvenbond. Below, we will discuss the structure
of collective wage agreements for each subsector in more detail. We will specifically
focus on the agreements for road haulage and KLM.
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