Holland Casinos Reach Agreement For Wage Increases With Trade Unions

• Rich Caesar
• June 29, 2022

Recently, we have been witnessing a stand-off between casinos and workers’ unions in Atlantic City which may result in a strike and huge financial loss to the gaming operators. At the same time, on the other side of the world, things look much better. According to the latest reports, Holland Casino has reached an agreement over wage hikes with the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions (FNV) and De Unie which gather the state’s casino employees.

Mutually Beneficial Agreement Between Trade Unions and Holland Casino

After weeks of discussions, the Netherlands’ largest trades union confederation has managed to get Holland Casino to commit to a series of wage increases and one-off payments. Following multiple rounds of negotiations, Holland Casino has agreed to structurally increase workers’ pay by 2.5%, starting this month. In addition, the wage rise will be accompanied with an additional €60 ($63.39). Furthermore, the terms of the agreement also include a one-time payment of €350 to be paid in July. Finally, workers will also receive another wage hike of 0.75%, starting in January next year.

Per the agreement, Holland Casino has additionally agreed to set the new minimum wage for their workers. As of now, the employees are guaranteed to receive a wage of at least €14 an hour. The new collective labor agreement is in effect from June 1, 2022, and is set to expire on September 30, 2023.

The HR Director at Holland Casino, Marleen Berk, offered further insight into the negotiations and the agreement that has been reached. She noted that the past two years in the industry were heavily influenced by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Casinos were forced to close their business for a while and operate under various restrictions imposed by the government. So, the negotiations had to be taken with the current financial position of Holland Casino in mind. On the other hand, they also had to consider the labor market situation and the increasing inflation.

Still, as Berk concluded, the two sides were able to reach an agreement that is relatively beneficial for both sides. In addition, they managed to do it in a rather short period of time. She firmly believes that the new collective agreement will be good for both the employees and the employer.

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Successful Negotiations Despite Continued Covid Impact

The raises came despite the fact that earlier this year, Holland Casino reported a 9.46% revenue decrease. The total revenue dropped to €304.2m in 2021, mainly due to the continued consequences of the Covid-19. Even the launch of the online gaming operation didn’t do much to offset the pandemic impact. In total, the casinos had their doors closed for 168 days due to lockdown restrictions.

Holland Casino Online, one of the 10 licensed operators, debuted on October 4 last year, only 3 days after the government introduced legislation to regulate online gambling. In the first year, the online division of Holland casino contributed €40.4 million to the total revenue. This makes 21.83% of the total revenue reported to the Dutch Gaming Commission by licensed online operators.