#Early #retirement #major #challenge
What exactly is going on?
At the end of last year, the trade unions FNV, CNV and VCP left the consultation on the so-called Early Retirement Scheme (RVU). They were in discussions with employers’ organizations about extending the scheme that makes it possible for heavy professions to stop working earlier. But they cannot agree on the conditions or advice to the new cabinet.
“Several solutions are possible,” says Piet Rietman, executive board member at FNV. But the unions and employers cannot agree on this.
According to FNV, it is time to talk past. About four hundred police officers demonstrated on Tuesday at the office of employers’ organization VNO-NCW and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment in The Hague.
According to the unions, it is ‘unhealthy, unsafe and ungrateful’ to have police officers work until they are sixty-eight. The action is also a ‘first shot across the bow’. If it produces no results, more actions will follow. “I can’t say yet with whom or when, that remains a surprise,” said Rietman.
The Early Retirement Scheme, what is it?
The RVU is in fact an agreement that people with a demanding profession can make with their employer, or an arrangement that is laid down in a collective labor agreement. The precise arrangements may vary, but they allow employees to stop working three years before they reach retirement age. The employees receive a bridging benefit from their employer over that period.
In most cases, this is a temporary scheme that applies until the end of 2025. Until then, a government tax exemption applies and employers do not pay tax on the RVU scheme under certain conditions. This is an agreement that was made in the Pension Agreement and runs until the end of 2025. It is not yet clear whether there will be a new exemption after that. Politics has yet to decide on this.
What do the unions want?
According to FNV director Rietman, a decision must be made hastily, because sufficient time is needed to record and implement new policy. FNV and other employee associations are committed to a permanent RVU scheme, so that someone who is now 35 can also count on the possibility of quitting earlier. The unions also want the benefit that people receive under the scheme to be increased.
According to Rietman, many people cannot make it financially to stop early with a benefit that is approximately as high as the AOW. The CNV trade union also came to this conclusion earlier, while many workers also estimate that they will not be able to continue working until their retirement age.
Finally, FNV and others want employers and employees to determine for themselves, for example within a collective labor agreement, what exactly constitutes heavy work. “They know that best,” says Rietman. It can be physically tough or mentally tough. “With the police it is often the latter, because they often have to deal with traumatic things.” Violence, for example, or accidents. Night work, changing shifts, or physical work can also often be labeled as heavy work.
What exactly is hard work?
According to Rietman, attempts have been made in the past to legally define what exactly constitutes heavy work, but this has not been successful. There is no official definition, also because heavy work can be classified as both physical and mental. According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), 38 percent of all employees regularly had physically demanding work in 2022.
Practice shows that there are various sectors that currently use RVU schemes, ranging from the more traditional physically demanding professions in construction or healthcare to financial institutions, says employers’ association AWVN. An evaluation by the association in 2022 previously showed that more than three hundred collective labor agreements have been made about early retirement since 2020.
“It affects many sectors,” says Rietman of FNV. For employees in the rail sector, lashers in the port, truck drivers, for people who work night or shift shifts. Recently, a small group of employees of chip machine maker ASML also campaigned for the RVU, which also happened at truck maker Scania.
What do employers think of the RVU?
For employers, the missing definition of heavy work is a major stumbling point in the discussion about the RVU, says Jannes van der Velde of employers’ association AWVN.
“It’s different everywhere,” he says. “If you want to set up a scheme, you must first see who is eligible for it, otherwise you don’t know what it will cost or what provisions you need to take as a company.” An early retirement is also an expensive arrangement, especially if many people fall under the definition of a heavy profession.
Employers would therefore like to define what hard work is and who is eligible for the scheme. They are not in favor of a permanent RVU scheme such as FNV, for example. And this is also due to the current tightness on the labor market, all people are desperately needed and it must therefore be ensured that employees can be deployed permanently.
According to AWVN, the RVU is primarily an ’emergency exit’ that should only be used by people who really cannot reach their retirement age on their own. It requires customization, says the industry and not a general rule. VNO-NCW calls on FNV to resume discussions about the scheme together.
How many people are taking early retirement?
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment estimated in 2021 that more than 20,000 employees would use the RVU scheme until the end of 2025. In June 2023, the counter will be more than 19,000 users.
