TNT and the Dutch trade unions ABVAKABO FNV, CNV Publieke Zaak, BVPP and VPP reached a new one-yearcollective labour agreement in constructive negotiations last week to end industrial action and a
planned nationwide strike.The agreement will come into force with retroactive effect to 1 April 2008 and will apply toall TNT employees in the Netherlands. The unions will present the agreement to their members with arecommendation for acceptance. This will put an end to the planned industrial action.
The key arrangements of the agreement include a salary rise in the form of a structuralincrease of 3% with retroactive effect to 1 April 2008, plus 0.5% in the form of a monthly paymentuntil 1 April 2009.
The monthly payment of 0.5% will become a structural increase with retroactive effect to 1April 2008 if a consensus is reached on an Operations collective labour agreement for employees inscales 1 to 4 at TNT Post’s Operations business unit by 31 March 2009. It will apply to existingand new employees. The level of this agreement will be substantially lower than that of the currentcollective labour agreement for TNT.
Furthermore, it will have to be decided separately on the market-level terms and conditionsof employment for Operations, Marketing & Sales and the employees of TNT Post Parcel servicewho do not fall under the planned collective labour agreement for Operations.
In addition, a separate collective labour agreement for Express, TNT Head Office, Spring,Cendris and European Mail Networks (EMN) will have to be reached by 31 March 2009.
An appropriate package of measures will be arranged for existing employees to compensate thedifference in terms and conditions of employment, taking into account the differences betweenemployees in terms of their opportunities in the labour market, TNT added.
