Employers' Association Facility Contact Centers (WFC) published the outlines of the new collective labor agreement for Facility Contact Centers for 2024 last Friday. Including a new designation for the agent: 'customer advisor', more attention to career opportunities and plans for 2025. For the Qlix trade union it is a negotiation result. It is a final offer for CNV and FNV. The unions still have to sit down with their supporters.

Correction – An earlier version of this article stated that Qlix members agreed to the proposal. This is incorrect and has been corrected in this version.

The employers affiliated with the WFC informed their employees last Friday. CNV expects to respond today, FNV has not yet responded to questions from Ziptone.

The proposal for the collective labor agreement for next year includes a term of another 12 months and the intention to declare the collective labor agreement generally binding, as was the case with the current collective labor agreement. The new collective labor agreement is the result of negotiations that started in the summer.

'Agent' becomes 'customer advisor'

A few things are striking about the proposal that is now on the table. For example, the social partners are moving away from the junior, medior and senior job levels (which will become levels 1, 2 and 3) and the designation 'agent' is also being replaced by 'customer advisor'. According to Norbert van Liemt, chairman of employers' association WFC, this was chosen because the word 'agent' is no longer seen as appropriate – and not good for the image. At the negotiating table, one of the most commonly used alternatives was chosen: customer advisor.

Space for additional tasks

This role can also be expanded temporarily or for a longer period of time - someone then becomes 'customer advisor plus' and can then perform additional tasks - such as coaching or projects. The content, duration and remuneration of this are matters that must be recorded in addition to the employment contract, as stated in the collective labor agreement proposal. The minimum compensation for this is 0,50 euros per hour.

That 50 cents seems like a symbolic compensation and that's how you should see it: the WFC's priority is that a mandatory compensation should apply for additional tasks. “It may also be more than 0,50 per hour. Some employers now pay nothing, others already pay 50 cents or more in practice,” says Van Liemt in response to questions from Ziptone. In principle, it is not the intention for customer advisors to work as managers via this 'plus role', according to the WFC chairman: your main task remains the same.

Salaries

Then the salaries. The minimum hourly salaries have been redetermined for the three levels: level 1 goes to 13,80 euros, level 2 goes to 14,08 euros and level 3 goes to 14,35 euros gross per hour. Compared to the minimum hourly salaries as of January 1, 2023, this is an increase of 15,6%. The increase also applies to employees who are paid above the collective labor agreement line.

Because salary increases were originally linked to the statutory minimum wage and the latter has risen relatively rapidly in recent years (also due to the change in the collective labor agreement from 40 to 36 hours), employers will not offer a wage increase based on an assessment in 2023, just as in 2024. On. However, the social partners will look for an alternative arrangement for after 2024. By 2025 there must be a combined construction: room for regular wage increases in addition to the possibility of an extra percentage based on a personnel assessment. However, discussions still need to be held with employees to scale them into the different levels.

Facilitate career opportunities

The new collective labor agreement proposals also state that the employer encourages and facilitates the progression from customer advisor to team leader. For example, by offering additional (temporary) roles and ensuring the correct education, training, coaching and/or course to be able to perform these (temporary) additional roles. Employers will make every effort to make information about career advancement transparent and easy to find so that it is clear to customer advisors whether there are internal career opportunities and, if so, what they look like. Something is also expected of the customer advisor himself: he/she must ensure that he/she is continuously informed of the latest developments in the field, which increases internal growth potential.

Scope and 'working together more'

Already announced earlier: the parties seem to agree that the scope of the collective labor agreement will be expanded as of January 1, 2025 for first-line managers. The aim is to reach agreement on the model and conditions on this point by 1 July 2024 at the latest.

Finally, the social partners also noted that they “act together as much as possible with the aim of improving the image of the sector”. As far as Van Liemt is concerned, this goes further than just collective labor agreement-related matters, but he also indicates that not all unions agree on this yet. (Ziptone/Erik Bouwer)

 

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