Last Wednesday, collective bargaining with KLM resumed. We have not actually got around to discussing the content for a new collective labor agreement. We mainly discussed KLM’s obligation to provide information under the current collective labor agreement with regard to Back on Track and the right of trade unions to be the first to issue advice.
Article 4.3 of the collective labor agreement
KLM announced some time ago that approximately 250 jobs will be lost among ground staff as part of the Back On Track restructuring. According to KLM, forced redundancies are not excluded.
De Unie immediately indicated that it does not find forced redundancies acceptable. In addition, we drew KLM’s attention to Article 4.3 of the collective labour agreement, which describes the unions’ first right to advice. After some discussion about this with KLM, we agreed on a working method in which the unions will be better and more detailed informed, can give advice and then the works council can also issue advice.
During the consultation, KLM informed us further and asked additional questions, some of which still need to be answered. This concerns a more detailed financial substantiation, the impact of the disappearance of the jobs in KLM’s organization and the personnel consequences. Only after we have received all the information will we be able to give advice, as described in the collective labor agreement. We hope that KLM will inform us further soon and that more will become clear soon.
The following
In the current collective labor agreements at KLM, agreements have been made about a possible additional wage increase. This increase depends on a calculation (see *) that is based on a so-called CBS price index. Because different reference dates have been agreed in the collective labor agreements, it now appears that an additional wage increase of 0.1% will take place in the Cabin and Cockpit domain. No correction will be made on the basis of the calculation in the land domain.
KLM has informed us about this. However, we wonder whether this is a desirable situation in a company where polarization between the various groups of employees is seen as a major problem. Yes, KLM follows the agreements made in the collective labor agreements, but could also have decided differently. Especially because the current collective labor agreement expires on March 1 and we have to pull out all the stops – in a challenging period for KLM – to reach a new collective labor agreement.
So much for this update
Because no more negotiation dates had been agreed, they are now being scheduled. We will keep you informed of the follow-up. If you have any questions or comments, please let us know. You can respond by sending a message to huug.brinkers@unie.nl.
Sincerely,
Huug Brinkers
Advocate
* 1 January 2025: If the ‘Annual Change in Derived Consumer Price Index’ determined by Statistics Netherlands in October 2024 is more than 3%, the wage increase of 3% will be supplemented by the excess with a maximum of 2.0% as of 1 January 2025.
