Quote Originally Posted by Hazir View Post
Unions engage in negotiations with employers or organisations of employers about general contracts which deal with pretty much every aspect of the relationship between employer and employed. In a typical negotiation that means that there are up to half a dozen of parties (or more) trying to strike a deal. These deals may or may not be sanctioned by the administration. If they are that means the agreement is binding for the entire sector.

Strikes are highly unusual in The Netherlands, to the point that they are almost non-existent.
It seems you have a very similar system to ours, out of interest, is it still possible to have an individual contract as long as it is in favor of the employee?

We have a 3 layer system (where the second layer is optional). The basement of every contract is defined in the mighty OR (obliation right), opon of these rules unions and companies can set a general contract (the goverment can make it binding) and on top of that you can agree on a individual contract.

For example the OR devines a minimum of 4 weeks holiday, the general agreement can extend that to a minimum of 5 weeks (but not reduce it) and a individual contract (assuming the general contract is binding) can increase the ammount of holidays even more (but not reduce them lower than 5 weeks).

About the cartell thing: I only see it as a problem, when Unions start to prevent people not being part of the union to work.
This is often the case with strike where the unions blockade the company ect. I think in this cases the Unions shlould be fines (which happens in Switzerland).