During the corona crisis, unnecessary redundancies were made because many collective labor agreement rules are too strict, employers’ association AWVN reports Monday. The organization advocates more flexible rules for, among other things, temporarily reducing wage costs and deploying employees in other positions. In this way, companies can employ more staff.
The association believes that future collective labor agreements should provide more room for employers to temporarily lower wages in times of crisis. Entrepreneurs should also be able to use their staff more hours per week to make up for production backlogs. In addition, they should also be able to deploy employees from other positions.
As an example, the AWVN cites a food manufacturer who wants to catch up in production backlog. This is made more difficult because the collective labor agreement prohibits employees from being deployed for more than 38 hours a week. Office workers are also not allowed to work temporarily in production. This creates unnecessary problems in times of crisis.
The AWVN is the most important advisor to the Dutch business community in the field of employer and employee status and collective labor agreements. During the association’s annual conference that took place on Monday, director Raymond Puts pointed out that entrepreneurs now often have no choice but to fire staff if they want to cut down on wage costs. However, that is certainly not always the only solution.
Puts believes that both employers and employees have a lot to gain by making employment conditions more flexible. This would ensure more job and income security and less dependence on flex workers. The association therefore hopes that trade unions will be open to this during future collective bargaining negotiations.
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