Irregular working hours are part of working in hospitality. If you don't work in hospitality, you might not consider this, but many people are working in hospitality even at night. Think of the bartender in a pub or the night receptionist in a hotel. Although night work is both physically and mentally demanding and wages in hospitality are low, hospitality workers are not rewarded extra in the CLA for the hours they work at night.
What is night work?
According to the Working Hours Act, a night shift is a shift in which more than one hour of work is performed between 00:00 and 06:00. Additional rules apply to night shifts regarding working hours, rest periods, and the number of shifts. For example, permanent night shifts are not allowed according to the Working Hours Act, and employees younger than 18 years are not allowed to work night shifts.
Risks
In hospitality, people often work hard and long days and nights. Working at night is extra demanding and also brings various risks. Your biorhythm is disrupted, and there is a greater chance of sleep problems; shorter sleep, waking up more often, and difficulty falling asleep. Additionally, night shifts affect your social life. Together, this often has a negative effect on your mood and performance, which neither you nor your employer will be happy about. You also become less alert, which can lead to dangerous situations, for example, in traffic. It is therefore not surprising that night work in the Netherlands is often rewarded extra. But why is nothing arranged regarding night allowance in the CLA hospitality?
Is night work attractive?
The advantage of working at night is that you are paid extra for it (in most sectors). For example, the CLA for hospitals states that staff receive an allowance of 52% for hours worked between 00:00 and 06:00 and on Saturdays between 22:00 and 00:00. It is particularly strange that staff in hospitality are not standardly rewarded for working at night and that nothing is arranged for this in the CLA.
Proposal FNV hospitality
In 2005, at the proposal of employers, the night allowance was removed from the CLA hospitality, despite strong opposition from FNV hospitality. The result of this decision is that as a hospitality worker, you no longer receive a standard night allowance. Fortunately, employees in some companies, especially large hotel chains, do receive a night allowance as a bonus, outside the CLA. Unfortunately, there are plenty of hospitality venues where this is not the case.
Wages in the hospitality sector are already on the low side, and night work brings health risks. For this very reason, FNV hospitality believes that the night allowance should be reintroduced in the CLA as a standard arrangement. FNV hospitality proposes a night allowance of 15%. This way, everyone is entitled to a bonus at night. Humans are not nocturnal animals and should therefore be rewarded extra! That is only normal!
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