Trade union federation FNV broke off talks with employers about working conditions on Tuesday following disagreements about ‘heavy work’, news agency ANP reports.

The government’s plans to increase the state pension age from 65 to 67 include efforts to reduce the amount of time a worker spends on ‘heavy work’ to 30 years. Social affairs minister Piet Hein Donner has asked unions and employers to work together on drawing up a definition of ‘heavy work’.
FNV chairman Agnes Jongerius said last week she had little faith that the unions and employers would be able to solve the problems with heavy work.
But the VNO-NCW and MKB employers organisations said on Tuesday the FNV had made ‘any constructive discussion on a practical approach to working conditions impossible from one minute to the next’, ANP said.