No redundancy agreement with unions 01/11/2007 00:00

 1 November 2007

AMSTERDAM - Dutch-British food and detergent producer Unilever has failed to sign an agreement with the labour unions, the multinational announced on Thursday.

Dutch Unilever employees have been on strike for the past two weeks after the company announced it would close down three factories in the Netherlands.

Unilever has a total of six factories in the country. Employees at five of these factories are participating in the strike.

The factories due to close are located in Delft, which produces Calve peanut butter, near The Hague, Vlaardingen, which makes Cif cleaner in the southern Netherlands, and Loosdrecht where Knorr foods are produced in the centre of the country.

Hundreds of employees are due to lose their jobs following the closure of the three factories.

The labour unions want Unilever to present a so-called social plan which would compensate the employees affected by the close and also help them get new jobs.

The unions also want Unilever to raise its salaries by 3 percent.

Thursday the Christian labour union CNV confirmed negotiations with Unilever's management had not resulted in an agreement.

The multinational had allegedly refused to guarantee all employees would retain their jobs or would be assisted to get a new job elsewhere.

"We have been unable to discuss the details of a social plan for all employees affected by the closure of the three factories," CNV negotiator Hans van der Veen said.

"I want to talk with the CNV members now to see how they feel about what we have achieved so far."

[Copyright dpa 2007]

Subject: Dutch news