Trade unions FNV, CNV and VCP launched a round of public transport strikes on Tuesday in an effort to enforce a “permanent and generous” arrangement allowing workers with ‘arduous professions’, such as policemen and public transport workers, to retire up to three years early.
The unions kicked off a week-long round of strikes on Monday afternoon when cleaners on Schiphol airport put down their tools.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, public transport workers across the country are on strike, while on the weekend the police will stop policing some mass events including an Extinction Rebellion march on a motorway and several football matches.
Since 2021, workers with ‘arduous professions’ can temporarily retire up to three years early. However, this arrangement, which was set up in response to an earlier increase of the pension age to 67, is to expire next year.
According to FNV, 27,000 people used the arrangement in the past three years.
The trade unions demand the current arrangement to be made permanent and more generous. Current gross payouts, to be paid by employers, are maximised at a little over €2,000 per month.
Over the weekend, pensions minister Eddy van Hijum proposed to extend the current arrangement by three years, with an increase of the maximum benefit payment of 10%. However, the trade unions rejected the proposal.
“The arrangement is insufficient now. We want a permanent and generous arrangement. The minister’s proposal provides for neither. People on lower incomes and without a lot of savings still will not be able to use it as payouts would be too low for them to sustain themselves,” a spokesperson for FNV told IPE.
People on lower incomes who live in rental housing, and are often employed in professions defined by social partners as ‘arduous’, indeed hardly apply for early retirement now.
Instead, they increasingly receive sickness benefits. Annual applications for sickness benefits have increased by almost 20% since 2020, with the rise mostly coming from people above 60 years of age.
FNV announced it will step up industrial action next week if the pension minister and/or employers do not come up with a better proposal.
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