University employers and employees have started the annual negotiations for a new collective labour agreement this month. The unions FNV and AOb are pushing for a structural university salary increase of 7% as of 1 July.
Good news for employees, bad news for university budgets: unions FNV and AOb have called for a 7% salary increase as of 1 July, the date on which the new collective labour agreement (cao) should take effect, at the start of the annual cao negotiations. The cao usually lasts for one year. The current cao expires on 30 June.
In the past period, the joint unions – in addition to FNV Universities and AOB, also FBZ and CNV – have spoken with many employees within the academic community and gathered input for the new collective labour agreement. This has resulted in a negotiating position that is based on fair pay, a social plan and quality of work. FBZ and CNV have not mentioned a percentage as a starting point for their negotiations, but are aiming for a generic improvement in purchasing power.
In addition, the joint unions want to introduce an automatic price compensation (APC) to compensate for future inflation arrears. This means that salaries will be indexed by means of a price compensation system to compensate for the increase in the cost of living. This means that gross salaries will be adjusted on 1 January each year based on the change in the consumer price index (CPI).
Equal pay
Another point of negotiation is equal pay for men and women. Their salaries still vary considerably. The unions want to close the so-called ‘gender pay gap’. In anticipation of the European directive on pay transparency, the unions want to make agreements on improving and reinforcing equal pay for men and women for equal or equivalent work. The unions also advocate equal treatment of interns by granting them an internship allowance of €750 per month on full-time basis.
The unions are also committed to ‘green employment conditions’, which would allow employees to take sustainability measures in their private lives. Specifically, they are considering €1,000 per year per employee. The possibilities for a good social plan - for example, transition payments in the event of dismissal - should also be expanded. The overtime compensation should also apply to all employees, both support and scientific staff, regardless of their salary scale. There is also good news for PhD students with an employment contract: if it is up to the unions, they may spend a maximum of 0.2 FTE (i.e. one day per week) on teaching.
Employers and employees will negotiate the unions’ demands over the coming months. A negotiated agreement should be reached by the end of June. The unions will then present this to their members and if they agree, the new collective labour agreement – and the salary increase – will go into effect on 1 July.
The salary increases are obviously good news for current employees, but the constant salary increases are a problem for the UvA faculties and services, all of which have ended up in the red this year as a result of the constant salary increases. On top of that, there are the cutbacks imposed by the current cabinet.