Dutch deal worth 3.6%

INEOS Styrenics at Breda in the Netherlands has agreed a 3.6% increase in pay for its 130 employees.

The deal is in two stages, a 2.15% increase backdated to 1 January this year and a further 1.4% in January 2015. The increase is well above inflation, which is currently 0.8% (March). It is also above the average for collectively agreed pay increases in the Netherlands, which was 1.0% in the first three months of the year.

The union FNV Bondgenoten described the deal as “one of the earliest and best in the chemical sector”.

INEOS Styrenics is part of the INEOS group, which includes the plant at Grangemouth in Scotland, where worse terms and conditions were accepted in 2013, following a threat to close the plan permanently.