Cleaners and employers reached agreement on new pay and conditions on Monday evening, following three and a half months of industrial action.

Following negotiations between employers’ representatives and the trade unions FNV Bondgenoten and CNV, cleaners will receive a 4.85% pay rise over two years, better training, work pressure monitoring and more job security for temporary workers.
According to press reports, better sick pay has also become negotiable for the first time in 20 years. At the moment cleaners are not paid for the first two days they are off work.
Pilot scheme
A year-long pilot scheme will see a group of workers paid sick pay for the whole period they are off ill. An independent person will then evaluate the results for both workers and employers.
Unions and employers’ representatives are enthusiastic about the deal, calling it ‘the best pay and conditions agreement in the Netherlands’.
According to Nos television, a majority of cleaners at a strike meeting in Amsterdam on Tuesday said they supported the deal.