Trade unions and the Dutch railway company NS have reached an agreement on Sunday morning over a new collective labour agreement, calling off the upcoming planned strikes due this week.
The trade unions will present the negotiated agreement to their members and have, for now, suspended their actions until union members have approved it, indicates the trade union organisation FNV Spoort.
Strike action had been planned for Tuesday 13 September trains in the east, south and north, to be followed by the middle of the country on Thursday 15 September, over
NS also confirmed that a deal had been reached on Sunday and that as a result, the strike action had been suspended.
Negotiations had resumed on Saturday morning and ended in the early hours of Sunday. Unions were demanding a €100 across-the-board pay rise and a minimum wage of €14 an hour.
As a result of the dispute, last month, the Dutch unions FNV, CNV and VVMC organised several regional strikes. The latest action dates from Friday and brought Dutch rail traffic to a standstill.
Further actions were planned for the next few weeks but have therefore been suspended, pending approval by union members of the agreement reached with NS. The deal includes a two-step wage hike averaging 9.25%, according to FNV.
