New collective labour agreement for universities: salaries up by 3.1 per cent and better protection for pregnant staff

Employees at universities will receive a 3.1 per cent salary increase from 1 July, a one-off payment of just over 1,500 euros, and an additional 50 euros per month. This is part of a new collective labour agreement. Pregnant staff will also receive better protection.en beter beschermd.

Universities and trade unions have reached a negotiators’ agreement for all employees at the fourteen Dutch universities. Their salaries will increase structurally by 3.1 per cent.

On top of this, they will receive 50 euros gross per month. “In particular, staff in the lower salary scales benefit from this arrangement and receive relatively more than colleagues in higher scales”, says executive Donald Pechler of the General Education Union. The average wage increase therefore amounts to 4.1 per cent. In addition, everyone will receive a one-off payment of 1,534 euros gross.

According to Hans Biemans, vice-chair of the University of Groningen and delegation leader on behalf of UNL, the spending cuts of the previous cabinet “have had an impact on universities”. The new agreement provides “a responsible wage increase” and steps are being taken “on a number of important issues”.

Pregnancy

Postdoctoral researchers will from now on receive an extension of their contract in the event of pregnancy and maternity leave, as well as parental and birth leave. “PhD candidates already had this, so we have now aligned this”, says Pechler.

In addition, the contracts of PhD candidates who express breast milk will be extended by one month, giving them time to properly complete their research. Staff who received certain allowances before their pregnancy, such as for irregular working hours, will retain these during pregnancy.

Reducing workload

The collective agreement will also include a ‘right to disconnect’, meaning university staff cannot simply be called for every minor issue. “We want to reduce workload and promote a culture in which rest outside working hours is respected”, Pechler said.

Lecturers in salary scales 3 or 4 will retain their scale and step if they move to another university. They will therefore not have to start again at the bottom. The unions also want to further explore how this group can more often be offered permanent contracts.

University administrators and union representatives will now present the negotiators’ agreement to their members. They hope to have a new collective labour agreement in place by 20 July at the latest, which would then apply retroactively from 1 July.