Dairy sector unions are poised to issue employers a Wednesday deadline for coming up with a pay offer in the region of 1.25% or face industrial action, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Monday.

Employers have called for a pay freeze for the sector’s 10,000 workers.
And the social insurance bank SVB may also be hit by strikes if management does not come up with a realistic pay offer, rather than a pay freeze.
The FD says the economic crisis is forcing employer groups across the country to call for no pay rise this year. But the unions are sticking to the social agreement thrashed out between themselves and employers last year which approved salary increases in line with inflation, currently around 1%.
Crisis
Cleaning sector unions have been taking industrial action for eight weeks and Amsterdam’s waste collection services say they will strike from April 30th unless a new offer is placed on the table. Local and provincial civil servants are also poised to down tools in support of their pay claim, the paper says.
At the beginning of April, negotiations open on a new pay deal for 400,000 residential and home care workers. Employers have called for a pay freeze, want to get rid of extra holiday for older staff and bring back night shifts for everyone. The unions have said this is ‘unacceptable’, the paper says.
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 last week.
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).