What even is a CLA / CAO? Dutch labour law 101
At my warehouse in Amsterdam Oud-west everyone was puzzled by the current ‘election’ for the Gorillas CAO / CLA. People were confused as to what they would be voting for and what even an CLA is. So here’s a very short primer on Dutch labour law. If you’re looking for a more lengthy and thorough explanation, check out labourrights.vrijebond.org which has information in many, many languages. The Vrije Bond is the biggest Dutch radical organisation and they’re friends of us riders.
Written by Sjerp van Wouden, Gorillas Rider in Oud-west.
If in doubt or if you have any questions you can allways mail us. That’s why we have a union right! We also have organisers in many cities and warehouses and can hook you up for a personal meetup. We also have public bi-weekly on- and offline meetings that are open to all riders / pickers / people in the rider-business generally, usually on tuesdays at 19:30.
Dutch labour law goes above everything, kind of, is hazy and context-bound
in principle, barring some exceptions. Anything in a contract or CLA must either expand your rights as stated in Dutch law, or it’s null and void. Then Dutch law takes precedence. I can’t summarise the law code here but here are some pointers. If you’re reading something and it feels weird or funny, it probably is. If you’re reading something and it feels heavy-handed, one-sided or straight up unfair, it probably is unlawfull.
Not meaning to defend the Dutch state here, but, the basic premise of all law in The Netherlands is / claims to be ‘reasonableness’ and ‘fairness’. In this country, as a principle, things are negotiated between workers and bosses as equals in both the general and particular, from wages to your schedule to your vacation. If you’re reading something that fails this criteria, it’s probably funny business.
Dutch law consists of both written law and jurisprudence. The latter is the sum of publicised rulings by Dutch courts. An example of the latter arecourt rulings stating that riders are generally not responsible for fines incurred during work, unless they were being reckless, that companies must cover in full all damages to personal possessions (like phones) incurred during a traffic accident, except when “it’s the riders fault”.
Dutch law is notoriously and conciously ‘hazy’, subject to interpretation and gray area. There’s this thing called ‘the letter of the law’ and ‘the spirit of the law’. Don’t be fooled by bosses or those they employ reading the law in their favor. We can, and will, do the same.
CLA means: Collective Labour Agreement.
CAO is Dutch: Collectieve Arbeidsovereenkomst
CLA is the base line for rights at your company. It is by law an extension of the law and forms the basis for all particular contracts at your company or in your branch of industry. Barring some exceptions, a CLA cannot take rights away from you granted by the Dutch law. CLA’s typically contains clauses on base wages for certain types of work, clauses on vacation, clauses on work safety, etc. They have a starting and end date and typically have a few years in which they are valid.
Around the expiration date, unions try to expand the rights and wages for the next round and the bosses typically try to water down the rights and wages. CLA’s are thus negotiated between the bosses or federations of bosses and ‘unions’. The airquotes are important. There are real unions like for example the big moderately left-wing FNV (Federation of Dutch labourunions) and moderately right-wing CNV (Christian Dutch labourunions) and this here independent grassroots union Radical Riders.
Yellow unions. Fake unions in cahoots with the bosses.
In The Netherlands basically anyone can claim to be a union, and sign a CLA. Yellow unions are fake unions run directly by or in cahoots with the bosses. Typical examples are the AVV (Alternative To Union). They have allmost no members. There are also hybrids like De Unie which to us riders are the stooges of the bosses, but actually do (however meekly) represent workers in their core industries. While De Unie is screwing Gorillas workers, they’re defending workers in the ‘klein-metaal’ which is metalworking-workshops. Why they do this? Two reasons. Because like companies unions (the bad ones atleast) compete for marketshare and De Unie wants to claim Gorillas as it’s territory. Secondly, and more nefariously, there’s this thing called the vakbondstientje. Which means that they get paid for signing any CLA, multiplied by things such as the amount of workers under that CLA. Thus signing bad CLA’s is a way to make money for the meek old unions, which are hemoreaging members and money. If you’re thinking that’s horribly corrupt and evil, you’re spot on.
The Labour Agreement / Arbeidsovereenkomst / your contract
person-specific expansion on the law and the CLA
Your labour contract references the CLA that is effective for you and references the Dutch law, and then expands on it in more specific terms. A labour contract can never deny rights granted in the CLA or the law. Here’s where it gets so specific that there are few general primers to give.
Let me give a practical but small example relevant to Gorillas, november 2021. It also shows how messy things are at Gorillas legally. I intentionally take a small example here. I’ve got tons and tons of notes on Gorillas taking a walk with our rights.
- Dutch law says you have a right to 20 days of vacation (on a full-time contract) and that you actually must go with vacation. It’s not something to be paid out. We workers have not only a right to relax but a duty, because it’s important for all parties involved to have healthy workers. It’s an obligation on the boss to make sure workers actually take their vacations. Workers can request a vacation verbally or in writing and a boss must allow this, unless they’ve explained in writing, within two weeks after the request was made, that there are superheavy reasons for the vacation not to go through.
- The CLA specifies what happens if you don’t use your vacation rights, and how days are taken into the next calendaryear (1 jan – 31 dec). The CLA specifies how to request a vacation, like by referencing company house rules, as is the case at Gorillas.
- The contract, while referencing law and CLA, comes up with it utterly own set of rules regarding vacation. From silly details (stating you need to request vacation 3 not 2 weeks in advance), to more serious changes. In the Gorillas contract vacation becomes something that’s granted by management and vacation can be refused for the broadest of reasons in any non-specified way. Gorillas does this by pretending to be summarising the legal situation as granted by law and CLA, which is fine, but then changing a few words and meanings here and there, eroding our rights. Thus the Gorillas contract is in conflict with both the CLA and Dutch law. In this case, the CLA should prevail, legally.
- House rules. Supposedly specifying more work-culture related issues, but at Gorillas they’ve inserted here (atleast the one used this summer) many clauses which should’ve been in the CLA or contract. I haven’t recieved mine with my contract, but I know ones issues this summer to be so utterly messy that things were copy-pasted around and sentences end just mid-sentence.
Confused? Need help understand legal things at Gorillas?
Write us.
We’ll be writing on understanding your salary slip also one of these days and we’re organising a meeting on understanding legal matters in december.