Vitality of employees a key focus in second consultation round for new cao
The Netherlands Federation of University Medical Centres (NFU) and the unions met for the second time on Thursday, October 19, to discuss a new cao for UMC employees. The current cao expires on 31 December 2023. It contains an agreement that all salaries will be raised by 4% on 1 November 2023.
During today’s consultation round, the focus was on the theme of vitality. In other words: how can we ensure that our employees can continue to enjoy working and with plenty of energy in all phases of their life? Which cao agreements can contribute to ensuring that goal in the daily tasks?
This consultation was also an opportunity to present the different parties’ visions about vitality. This included discussing leave arrangements and the importance of recovery periods. These topics will be addressed again in a future consultation. ‘Both the unions and we are very committed to this topic,’ concluded the UMC negotiators Gabriël Zwart and Karen Kruijthof. ‘The concerns the well-being of people. The agreements must always reflect what employees want and what is feasible within the organisation’.
Agreements were also made about other topics to be covered. Compensation is one of them. Although this is an important part of the cao – naturally – it became apparent from the dialogue sessions with employees that good daily working conditions and reducing the work pressure are equally important. The current cao specifies that the salaries will by raised by 4% on 1 November 2023, in addition to the 6% increase awarded earlier in the year.
The next consultation round about the new cao will be held on Friday, 3 November 2023.
