2023-09-15 05:15:00
About ten percent of Dutch companies already do it: let employees share in the company’s profits by, for example, giving them shares or offering a profit-sharing scheme. This would lead to more motivated employees and higher productivity.
Trade union CNV, which is focusing on shares for employees in upcoming collective labor negotiations in addition to a wage increase, is mainly about the money. “Corporate profits went through the roof last year, while many employees cannot afford their groceries. The loot must therefore be better distributed,” says CNV chairman Piet Fortuin.
No warm blanket over the Netherlands
Dozens of collective labor agreements will be concluded again in the coming year. Fortuin: “It is important that we make agreements about employee participation, and that this participation has a financial component. How exactly this should be done is a matter of customization. It will vary from company to company.”
Although CNV itself talks about ’employee shares’, this should not be taken too literally. It is relatively easy to arrange shares for employees at listed companies, but not at small and medium-sized businesses. In the latter category, according to Fortuin, you can choose to let employees share in the profits, something that is already legally possible.
Employees could thus receive a bonus of up to a thousand euros, Fortuin believes. An important note about that amount: the law must first be changed. “We would like to see, for example, a profit share of one thousand to two thousand euros remain tax-free. We need the State Secretary and the House of Representatives for this,” says Fortuin, who sees interest in his proposal from several political parties.
Shares are an extra
Employment law professor Jaap van Slooten is somewhat skeptical about the plans. “CNV advocates a form of shares, on top of the proposed salary increase. In practice, this is not that easy, because these are all extra costs for companies. And there is the risk that employees who share in the company’s profits will have to exchange part of their fixed salary for an uncertain form of salary. Shares and profits provide less security, and it does not seem to me that CNV as a trade union stands for that.”
But Fortuin sees no objections to that construction. “The shares are an extra, but only if companies can afford it. It does not replace salary. We will always look at what is possible per company.”
In upcoming collective labor agreements, CNV also wants to work on shorter working weeks, which should ensure a better balance between work and private life. As far as the union is concerned, employees should work 30 hours per week as standard. According to CNV, this is the first time that the union has also made these demands during collective labor agreement consultations. “Working one hour less is actually 2.5 percent wage room.” The union also wants parental leave and bereavement leave to be fully paid.
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