Update II negotiations CLA contract catering and inflight

Parties miles apart

On Thursday, February 1, the negotiations for a new CLA catering/hospitality (third round) and inflight (second round) continued. During the previous negotiations, several questions were raised that parties need to find answers to together. There is still much to be done, as parties are miles apart on the key issues.

Catering/Hospitality

Salary
Employers have so far not engaged substantively with the proposals from FNV Catering. Our aim is a 14% salary increase from April 1, 2024, on all salaries in catering (Part A CLA) and hospitality (Part B CLA). Employers have indicated that their limit is the salary increases given in the CLA hospitality as of January 1, 2024. Agreements have been made there about a combined salary increase, namely the increase of the statutory minimum salary and the CLA salary increase. Since our CLA expires on April 1, 2024, the increase in the minimum salary is already applicable in the CLA catering/hospitality.

Employers have indicated they want to merge the salary scales of Part A and Part B. Unions believe now is not the time for this and want to wait for the agreements made in hospitality for a completely new salary structure and job scales.

Unions and employers are still miles apart when it comes to salary increases and restoring the salary structure for now and the future.

Effects of WML increase as of January 1, 2024
Due to the increase in statutory minimum hourly wages as of January 1, 2024, the salary scales in catering have been thrown out of balance. An example is that the first three salary scales in company catering have fallen under the new WML. This means that a full-timer (40 hours per week) in salary scale 1 to 3 receives the same monthly salary of €2,317.83 from January 1, 2024. As a result, there is little difference between the salaries of employees in higher salary scales and those of colleagues receiving the WML.

Example;
A catering manager in salary scale IV with 4 years of service received approximately €350 more salary in 2023 compared to a catering employee in salary scale II with 3 years of service. Due to the WML increase as of January 1, 2024, this difference has decreased to €214, a total difference of €136.

The conclusion is that the lower salary scales have increased significantly due to the WML increase, and the difference with the higher salary scales has become much smaller.

FNV Catering wants to restore these skewed relationships in the salary structure as much as possible and agree on a salary increase that restores the inflation decline of recent years as much as possible.

Automatic Price Compensation (APC)
FNV Catering has proposed to include in the CLA that salaries are automatically increased annually with the rising prices.
Employers have not yet responded substantively to this.

Part A and Part B of the CLA
Since 2022, the CLA catering has been split into two separate parts: Part A for all employees who were employed under the old CLA before April 1, 2022, and Part B (also known as the hospitality part) for all employees who joined after April 1, 2022.

It was agreed that employees could also choose to switch from Part A to Part B. This can only be done if the employee chooses to do so and uses the mandatory calculation tool prescribed by the CLA. The calculation tool calculates the value of the employment conditions in Part A into a personal allowance in Part B. Part B closely resembles the CLA hospitality with several improvements, the so-called plus Membership, such as the generation pact scheme and higher travel allowances.

Employers have sent unions a so-called ‘concretisation of desired CLA agreements’.

Significant disagreement with employers
Employers want to abolish Part A and only apply Part B. They want to implement this by April 1, 2024, and if that is not possible, to implement it at a later date. Employers are aiming for a mandatory transition, where the employee no longer has the freedom of choice.

FNV Catering has stated that such a (mandatory) transition from Part A to Part B is non-negotiable. FNV Catering believes that employers can make a potential (voluntary) transition from A to B much more attractive for employees, making the choice easier for the employee. We are jointly looking at which parts from A can be transferred to Part B to make a potential transition more attractive. What must remain is that the choice to switch should always be a voluntary choice of the employee. We do agree that communication about this must be significantly improved.

Employers continue to insist on their position to abolish Part A (in the long term), which puts the negotiations under pressure.

Travel costs
FNV Catering has proposed to increase the travel costs for commuting for all employees in Part A and Part B to the statutory maximum amount of €0.23 per km for all kilometres and to reimburse all incurred public transport costs.
Employers have not yet responded substantively to this.

Inflight

Salary
In inflight, too, the increase in the statutory minimum hourly salary (WML) has an effect on the salary structure. FNV Catering wants the relationships and differences in the salary structure for inflight catering to be restored first, and then an inflation correction to be applied to the salaries. Employers do not want to go further than what they agree in the broad catering/hospitality CLA. Their starting point is that this cannot be higher than what has been agreed in the hospitality CLA. We clearly differ in opinion with employers on this, and the distance to meet each other in this is large. FNV Catering has asked employers to reconsider their position and come up with a better salary offer, otherwise a big problem will arise.

Unions believe that the competition on employment conditions at Schiphol is different from the broad CLA for contract catering/hospitality. Additionally, we know that the labour market for inflight is currently a serious problem and that the number of flights will further increase in 2024. Employees are looking around at Schiphol and leaving inflight catering for better employment conditions at other companies at Schiphol. This increases the workload for existing staff. If there is no substantial improvement in salaries and travel costs, attracting new colleagues will become increasingly difficult. Where we do agree is that the workload for existing staff must not be further pressured.

Employers think that with their intended salary increase, they are (again) competitive at Schiphol. FNV Catering disagrees.

Automatic Price Compensation (APC)
FNV Catering has proposed to include in the CLA that salaries are automatically increased annually with the rising prices.
Employers have not yet responded substantively to this.

Travel costs
FNV Catering has proposed to increase the travel costs for commuting for all inflight employees to the statutory maximum amount of €0.23 per km for all kilometres and to reimburse all incurred public transport costs.
Employers have not yet responded substantively to this.

In preparation for the third round on Thursday, February 15, parties will research turnover figures, competing CLAs, and how many employees are needed for the flights in 2024. If this substantiation is necessary to move us forward, then we will do this.