Childcare workers will receive an average salary increase of 12 percent over the next eighteen months. Extra measures are also being taken to tackle the workload. For example, childcare must become more attractive now that there is a large staff shortage and staff are less and less satisfied.
After five months of negotiations and threats of action, childcare workers finally get their way. The average 12 percent extra salary will be divided into an average increase of 7.9 percent in 2023 and another 4 percent in 2024. The collective labor agreement will last until the summer of 2024. After that, a new agreement must be concluded for six months.
Actions are averted with the deal. Unions threatened to do so in November when they brushed off an offer of more than 10 percent increase. Childcare organizations also went on strike in 2021, forcing parents to keep their children at home for a few days.
“This agreement will hopefully lead to the necessary calm in the sector and shows our great appreciation for all employees,” says Rogier Vegter, director of the branch organization Childcare.
Work in childcare must remain attractive through extra pay
The wage increase is badly needed to keep working in childcare attractive. Pedagogical employees have reported sick more often since the corona crisis and have seen the workload increase due to staff shortages.
No less than 61 percent of employees rate the workload as ‘very high’. An increasingly smaller percentage of employees (68 percent in 2022, compared to 79 percent in 2019) is satisfied with their work, although this is not due to the content of the work; they find that very useful.
Better working conditions also for staff to be recruited
“Professionals in childcare are improving considerably and have more career prospects, and it is becoming more attractive to start in childcare,” says Loes Ypma, the chairman of the branch association for social childcare, enthusiastically.
Ypma believes that the better employment conditions will also make it easier to recruit staff and calls the new collective labor agreement “a big step forward”.
Vegter adds that the lower pay scales will expire, so that new staff will start at a higher salary, and that pay scales will be extended to allow further wage growth for loyal employees as well.
After compensation for inflation, now also talk about work pressure
“It was very important for our members that wages go up because of the sky-high inflation,” says Debby Doornbos, director of FNV Zorg & Welzijn. Now that agreements have been made about this, talks about staff shortages and work pressure will follow.
Chantal van Dijk of CNV Zorg & Welzijn still sees room for “additional wage agreements” in 2024, because this is a short-term collective agreement.
Free childcare will put further pressure on staff shortages in 2025
After the arrival of this new collective labor agreement and the six-month transition period, an exciting time is ahead, because the government wants to make childcare virtually free for everyone by 2025. It is expected that there will be extra demand for places at childcare, while childcare organizations are already struggling with major staff shortages.
The number of vacancies quadrupled between 2018 and 2022. Many new employees are joining the childcare sector, but thousands of employees leave the sector every year. They then choose another profession.