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While on active duty, medical care for both the NCO and his family was very poor and after retirement only a small pension was provided. In the following years other associations followed and by 1910 there were already six of them. Although politicians and military authorities did question the existence of these associations at the time, they never questioned the right of association.

There was no official way of consulting with the government and all the associations could do, was request an audience with the Minister of Defence or speak with members of parliament. Yet, thanks to their consistency the associations did obtain better regulations on pensions, on medical care, etc., etc. It was only in 1931, when the Military Public Servants Act passed parliament, that a formal structure for consultation was established. In these days consultation meant that the Minister would only listen to the associations and take his decision afterwards. A situation, which was certainly not satisfying. Primarily because of the fact that the number of associations had grown to more than 10 which enabled the Minister to "divide and rule". But also because of the fact that there were different committees for officers and NCO's.

After World War II the situation improved. In the mid-1950's The Minister was forced to start two-way consultation with the associations. He was also forced to discuss any change in regulations with the associations. Although that sounded very good and it was indeed a big step forward, it quite often lead to the situation that there were long discussions, with the Minister deciding conform his own proposal at the end. In 1976 the two committees were joined in one deliberation-platform for all military personnel (CGOM). The deliberation-platform for all public servants (CGOA) was made the leading platform for negotiations and deliberations for primary terms of employment (salaries, pensions and social security) for all public servants. This deliberation-platform was manned by four Bureaus for Civil Servants. This way, the working conditions for approximately 800.000 public servants, including military personnel, were set. It is for that reason that the associations for military personnel sought connection with and finally joined one of these four Bureaus.

When Dutch parliament ratified the European Social Charter in 1980, it made an exemption on article 6, subpara 4, for all public servants. In that article the right of collective actions (including strikes) is laid down. Parliament ordered the Dutch Government to come up with an acceptable substitute for the right of collective actions. It took the Government until 1985 when finally the Advice- and Arbitration Committee (AAC) was installed. That made it possible for the associations to seek the advice of the AAC whenever the deliberations with the Government had not lead to an acceptable outcome. The associations used this possibility of seeking advice only a few times, mainly because seeking the advice of a third party shows the weakness of the two parties concerned.

On the other hand however, it also allowed for "threatening" Government with using the AAC. As AAC is operating publicly and would therefore expose the "bad" government, it quite often made Government give in to our wishes. Arbitration was only possible if the Government agreed to it and so far they have never done so. The main reason for that is that Government is subject to the parliament's right of budget.