Pay demands are almost certainly set to rise because of mounting inflation, union leaders say in Friday’s Volkskrant.

‘Next year’s pay demand will be at least the same as inflation,’ Henk van der Kolk, leader of the biggest trade union federation, the FNV, told the paper.
Leaked figures from the government’s CPB planning office suggest inflation will reach 3.8% in 2009. This year unions put a 3.5% ceiling on their pay demands.
The CNV union federation’s pay coordinator Rienk van Splunder tells the Volkskrant that inflation figures already published point to a 4.5% pay demand. Earlier he suggested the CNV would press for a 4% rise in 2009, the paper says.
Unions traditionally present their pay demand one day before the government’s budget, which is always the third Tuesday in September.