Pay rises should go to those who earn less, say professors

In times of austerity, professors don’t need the biggest pay rises. The most significant salary increases should go to people on lower pay scales, says Laura Batstra, an adjunct professor based in Groningen. She started a petition that’s been signed 437 times.

Batstra would be happy to earn less – she’s ‘only’ an adjunct professor and already makes more than 8,000 euros per month before taxes. Most professors earn even more, with gross salaries of up to 12,000 euros.

And now the unions are demanding a further seven percent pay rise. Batstra thinks this is a good idea for the lowest wages, but not for the highest. “Why should those who earn the most get the biggest pay rise?”

Cents

Employers and unions are currently negotiating a new collective labour agreement, which is expected to be finalised in June. Batstra hopes that the wage increase will be a fixed amount rather than a percentage. If everyone receives the same amount on top of their current salary, lower earners will enjoy a greater relative increase than those in the top pay scales. Together with two colleagues from the University of Groningen, Laurent Krook and professor Dirk-Jan Scheffers, Batstra dusted off a slogan from the 1970s: ‘Cents instead of percentages’.

She estimates that the union’s current demand will result in an average monthly pay rise of 650 euros for professors. Associate professors will have to make do with ‘only’ 400 euros more, while the pay rises for people in support roles will be even lower. If it were up to the Groningen academics, increases for those on scale 12 and above should be based on a fixed amount rather than a percentage.

“Life is getting more expensive for everyone”, Batstra explains. “But it’s precisely the least well-off who find it harder to protect themselves against inflation. They don’t have solar panels and can’t insulate their rental homes with triple glazing to offset rising energy costs.”

Petition

Unions are familiar with the principle behind Batstra’s petition. FNV executive Sam Verduijn doesn’t want to say too much about the matter, as collective bargaining is still ongoing, but: “We’re always in favour of narrowing the income gap, and we’re open to ideas that contribute to that.”

At the time of writing, on Tuesday morning, the petition started by Batstra and her colleagues has been signed by 437 people. She’s mainly focusing her attention on UNL, which represents the employers in the negotiations. “UNL was against the idea before”, says Batstra.

According to UNL, previous collective agreements did in fact include income levelling agreements, with relatively high salary increases for those on the lowest scales. There have also been one-off bonuses that were the same for everyone and therefore relatively advantageous for people on lower scales. And, the umbrella organisation warns: “Universities need to be attractive employers for people on the higher scales too.”

Budget cuts

“Yeah…” There’s a moment of silence at the other end of the line as Batstra chews on that last argument. “That’s something they say a lot, isn’t it, that you won’t get good people if you don’t pay enough. I always find that a bit insulting. As if people can only be good if they demand a lot of money.”

Batstra has long felt that top salaries are too high, but it’s the recent budget cuts that have spurred her into action. “We can be outraged at the layoffs that are happening, which I also find awful. But we could save millions if the best-paid people at our universities were willing to accept the same wage increase as everyone else. Of all the possible austerity measures, this is the only one that does no harm.”