# Mental health care unions start pay action after ultimatum expires

> Unions FNV and CNV say employees in mental health care (GGZ) will start collective action for a better pay deal after their ultimatum to employers expired without result.

Economy · published 2026-11-09 12:20 · https://nlnow.nl/a/mental-health-care-staff-to-take-action-from-december/

Employees in mental health care (GGZ) will take action from December to press for a better collective labour agreement (cao), after an ultimatum from unions FNV and CNV expired at 12:00 today and employers did not meet their demands. FNV says it will be the first collective action by GGZ employees this century.

The unions gave employers' organisation de Nederlandse ggz the ultimatum last week. It expired at 12:00 today. According to FNV, employers did not meet the unions' demands on substance.

Eight rounds of negotiations have produced no agreement. The unions demand a 6% pay rise on a cao term of at most twelve months. The parties also failed to agree on travel costs, workload, night and weekend shifts and support for PTSD.

Elise Merlijn of FNV Zorg & Welzijn (care and welfare) said she is "extremely disappointed" after so many rounds. "Employers apparently are letting unrest in the sector grow," she said. "They did not even bother to engage with our demands. Staff feel unheard and unseen."

Jeroen Degenkamp, a psychiatric nurse and action leader who handed the ultimatum to employers for the unions, said he sees more and more angry colleagues. "For people to keep doing this work well and enjoying it, employers must invest in their staff too," he said.

Chantal van Dijk of CNV said the unions would rather have settled the dispute at the cao negotiating table and gave employers a last chance to prevent action. "Nobody in the GGZ likes taking action, but we have no choice," she said. The unions will say later what form the action will take.

Statistics Netherlands (CBS) figures show that wages and salaries paid by mental health hospitals (GGZ with overnight stay) rose every year from 2016 to 2025. They went from €2,985m in 2016 to €4,827m in 2025, the latest year on record.

**Wage bill in residential mental health care rose every year since 2016** (€m; source: CBS)

- 2016: 2985
- 2017: 3005
- 2018: 3154
- 2019: 3315
- 2020: 3601
- 2021: 3725
- 2022: 3870
- 2023: 4069
- 2024: 4497
- 2025: 4827

## Background

- **FNV (Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging)**: The largest trade union federation in the Netherlands. It negotiates collective labour agreements (cao's) and takes part in national talks with employers and the cabinet.
- **cao (collectieve arbeidsovereenkomst)**: A collective labour agreement (cao) is a written agreement between employers' organisations and trade unions that sets employment conditions such as pay, working hours and holiday entitlement for a sector or group of companies. Its terms apply to the employees it covers, and negotiations on a new cao are how these conditions are renewed or changed.
- **CNV (Christelijk Nationaal Vakverbond)**: CNV is a trade union confederation in the Netherlands, meaning a federation of trade unions that represents employees' interests. It negotiates collective labour agreements (cao's) with employers and takes part in consultations on working conditions.

From NLnow, news from the Netherlands in English. How stories are made: https://nlnow.nl/about/