# Bus employers make final offer to unions on new cao

> Employers in city and regional transport put a final offer for a new collective labour agreement to the unions on 30 October. CNV will recommend that its members reject it and says new strikes affecting bus services are then likely.

Economy · published 2026-10-30 18:28 · https://nlnow.nl/a/bus-strikes-likely-after-employers-final-contract-offer/

The employers' association VWOV presented a final offer for the new cao for public transport to the unions CNV and FNV on 30 October. CNV will put the offer to its members with a recommendation to reject it.

The agreement covers about 13,000 employees, mostly bus drivers, in city and regional transport. City transport in Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam is excluded. They work for Arriva, EBS, Qbuzz, Keolis, Transdev and RET Streekvervoer.

CNV negotiator Niels Rook says the offer lacks important improvements, while the employers want to make the shift allowance and the age schemes worse. "This is not the cao we negotiated for," he says. If members reject it, "the chance that they will take action again is high".

According to CNV, employers want to turn the average shift allowance into a personal allowance that shrinks with each wage rise. Rook says drivers would slowly use up the allowance and risk losing income: "That is unacceptable to us."

CNV says the employers also want the 50+ scheme to start at 53 and then rise with the state pension age, and the 63+ scheme to be tied to the RVU. Rook says this "is not an improvement, but a restriction of existing rights", so fewer people will use it.

Drivers held a 24-hour strike on 22 October. The unions suspended further action after VWOV sent a letter. Rook says the employers have now "not put their money where their mouth is" in the final offer.

**What happens next**

- From early next week: the unions put the final offer to their members
- Until 16 November: members can vote
- If members reject it, CNV says one or more new strike days are likely

## Background

- **VWOV (Vereniging Werkgevers Openbaar Vervoer)**: The employers' association for public transport companies in the Netherlands. It represents the employers in the sector in collective bargaining, negotiating the cao (collective labour agreement) for public transport with the trade unions on their behalf. Its offers and agreements set pay and working conditions for employees across the sector's operators.
- **cao (collectieve arbeidsovereenkomst)**: A collective labour agreement: a contract negotiated between employers' associations and trade unions that sets pay, working hours, holidays and other conditions for a whole sector or company group. In the Netherlands, cao terms usually apply to all employees in the covered sector, and union members vote on proposed agreements before they are signed.
- **CNV (Christelijk Nationaal Vakverbond)**: A Dutch trade union federation, the Christian National Trade Union Federation, which negotiates on behalf of employees in many sectors. It takes part in collective bargaining (cao negotiations) and asks its members to vote on proposed agreements, giving them voting advice.

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