The ongoing round of talks between unions and employers on pay and conditions (cao) show a sharp rise in pay rates, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Friday.

Employers organisation AWVN says the average pay rise agreed for 2007 so far is 2.56%. Two months ago, the average rise was 2.16%, the organisation, which is involved in 500 pay talks, told the paper.
Trade union federation FNV, which uses other methods to calcuate average rises, puts the figure so far at 2.8%.
Most Dutch companies are involved in sector-wide pay talks. Pay deals which are agreed then apply across the board.
A number of major deals agreed over the past few weeks, such as for civil servants and health service workers, are around the 3% level.
The trend was set at the beginning of this year by the construction industry, which agreed a structural rise of 7% spread over 27 months, FNV official Erik Pentenga told the paper. Then came the civil service deal. ‘After that, our members started saying ‘we want that too’, ‘ Pentenga said.
Pentenga said the FNV’s decision in November to go for an average rise of 3% was also behind the upward swing in recent months. Pay talks which started earlier have a lower target, he said.
However, AWVN negotiator Maurice Rojer told the FD he did not think 3% would be the new bottom line. ‘There is a slight upward trend compared with last year but it is by no means certain this will continue,’ Rojer said.