Healthcare workers will go on strike on March 16 at 64 hospitals nationwide as their campaign for higher pay continues. 

The four nursing unions say the strike will result in the hospitals operating a Sunday service, which means only emergency care will be available. The strike does not affect university hospitals, which have a different pay deal. 

The unions are calling for a 10% pay rise, a €100 basic salary increase and higher travel expenses. They also want more initiatives to reduce the pressure of work. 

The hospitals have offered 5% now and a further 5% at the end of the year, with the pay deal running over two years. 

The hospital workers’ strike is the latest in a string of stoppages, as unions demand pay rises in line with soaring inflation, which hit 8% in January.

Regional transport workers are also involved in a new six-week round of strikes in support of their pay claim. Shop workers for the Bijenkorf and Etos chains have also taken industrial action and the Benu pharmacy chain has been hit by revolving strikes. 

The country’s two biggest trade union federations, the FNV and CNV, told news website Nu.nl on Friday that they have enough money available to continue to fund strikes for the foreseeable future. Strikers are paid by the unions if employers decide to dock their pay. 

The FNV says 15 strikes have been scheduled in the first two months of the year, compared to 22 for the whole of 2021, the last year for which official statistics are available. At the end of last month city council bin collectors won the equivalent of a 13% rise after weeks of strike action. 

The record year for strikes was 2017 when the government statistics agency CBS recorded a total of 32 labour stoppages.