Talks between social affairs minister Piet Hein Donner and the FNV trade union federation on measures to reduce the recession are at a stalemate, FNV leader Agnes Jongerius said in Sunday’s Telegraaf.

Jongerius told the paper that Donner wants unions to agree to a three-year pay freeze and is prepared to sanction breaking open existing pay deals to achieve it.
At the same time, Donner wants to increase the state pension age from 65 to 67 on January 2011 for all workers under the age of 50.
The unions are totally opposed to increasing the pension age and say a three-year pay freeze means three years of reduced spending power.
‘I do not think we are getting there on any of the important points,’ Jongerius told the Telegraaf.