“Thousands of pharmacy employees” across the Netherlands have walked out today (January 9) for two days as part of a national strike, Dutch trade union Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging (FNV) said.
The strike was announced by FNV and Christian trade union Christelijk Nationaal Vakverbond (CNV) last week (January 3) and will see “nearly 2,000 public pharmacies” shuttering until the end of tomorrow (January 10).
Read more: ‘Soon there may be no pharmacies left’: Dutch pharmacies hold national strike
The trade unions previously held a national strike in November “to enforce a better collective labour agreement for pharmacy employees”, CNV said at the time.
But despite this, “no agreements have been made about higher wages and lower work pressures in pharmacies,” FNV said, forcing staff to “continue to take action”.
“The message is loud and clear”
FNV and CNV are demanding a retroactive 6% wage increase from July 1 2024 – as they did in November – explaining that “the employers still do not want to go further than a meagre 2% wage increase”.
The unions have asked for a “2% end-of-year bonus” and have added that “in 2025, wages must also increase by a similar percentage”.
They have also demanded that “all hours worked…must be paid”, including “short preparation moments, such as fifteen minutes before opening”.
Read more: Contract chaos: NPA issues pharmacy collective action ultimatum
In a joint statement, FNV director Ralph Smeets and CNV director Albert Spieseke said that “there is still no better collective labour agreement, so we have no choice but to take action again”.
“The patience of the employees has run out [and] the message is loud and clear: give us what we are entitled to, because you will not get us down,” they said.
“If an agreement is not reached soon, national strikes will continue,” they added.
“Willingness” to strike “greater than ever”
Dutch pharmacy workers had hoped to strike during the Christmas period, but their plans were blocked after a judge ruled it “may not go ahead”.
“If the employers thought that they could put an end to the actions of their staff with that lawsuit, then that was a wrong assessment,” Smeets and Spieseke said.
Read more: Saturday shutdown: Pharmacy protest ballot could see weekend closures
“They have achieved the opposite [and] the willingness to take action is greater than ever,” they added.
But while thousands of pharmacies across the Netherlands will be shut this week, the unions have stressed that “the action does not pose a risk to the health of patients,” adding that “emergency care is guaranteed”.
Read more: French pharmacists strike ‘for the survival of local pharmacies’
It comes as the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) yesterday issued an ultimatum warning it will have “little choice but to advise pharmacies to take collective action later this month” if delays to the pharmacy contract negotiations continue.
If the body does make this recommendation, pharmacies could take measures almost immediately, an NPA spokesperson told C+D – although some types of action could take months to start.
