Sector-wide pay rises agreed in the first three months of this year averaged 1.6%, compared with 3.6% in the same period in 2009, the national statistics office CBS said on Wednesday.

The figure is based on pay awards covering 60% of the working population. Some 80% of Dutch workers fall under a nationally-agreed pay and conditions agreement (cao).
The government had called on companies and unions to show moderation in the light of the economic crisis.
The biggest increase so far this year is the public transport workers’ pay deal, the equivalent of 2.7% including one-off bonuses, the CBS said.
Around a quarter of workers whose pay is negotiated nationally have not yet had a rise because no agreement has been reached.
No deal
‘This is a much larger group than normal,’ CBS economist Michiel Vergeer told the NRC. ‘Hundreds of thousands of people are working under a pay and conditions deal which have expired.
Around half of the 900 sector-wide pay deals are scheduled to be renewed this year, the paper says.
These include a new agreement for 200,000 local authority civil servants and the cleaning sector. Cleaners have already been involved in industrial action in support of their claim for 4% over two years.
While wages have risen an average 1.6%, the cost of employment has gone up 1.9% because of increases in employer contributions towards health insurance and other premium rises, the CBS said.

Hema, Unilever
One delayed pay deal is that of food to detergents group Unilever, which said on Wednesday it had finally agreed a pay rise to cover staff between March 2009 and May 2010.
The deal includes a 2% structural rise and a 1.75% of annual income one-off payout. The company has a workforce of 3,300 in the Netherlands.
And department store group Hema has agreed to give its 9,000 workers a 1% structural increase plus a 0.2% extra increase for the under-22s. The deal also puts a ceiling of 52 evenings a year on evening shifts, unless workers themselves want to do more.

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