{"id":195889,"date":"2025-02-25T13:48:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T12:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2025\/02\/25\/umcs-blijven-bij-hun-opvatting-van-de-cao-ten-koste-van-stagiairs\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T10:23:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T09:23:27","slug":"umcs-blijven-bij-hun-opvatting-van-de-cao-ten-koste-van-stagiairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2025\/02\/25\/umcs-blijven-bij-hun-opvatting-van-de-cao-ten-koste-van-stagiairs\/","title":{"rendered":"Umcs stick to their interpretation of the collective agreement, at the expense of interns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A small group of students may still receive an internship allowance at the academic hospitals. But that is by no means certain, and the umcs continue to deny that they are circumventing the collective agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFemke Legu\u00e9<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Are university medical centres complying with the collective agreement? \u201cI understand that students are angry\u201d, wrote<\/a> health minister Fleur Agema to the House of Representatives last Tuesday, but she will definitely not intervene. The collective agreement is a matter for employers and trade unions, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note that this is not about medical interns, who have their own allowance included in the collective agreement<\/a>. But since last year, \u2018ordinary\u2019 interns at academic hospitals have also been entitled to an allowance. They can expect just over four hundred euros per month. This agreement is binding for the seven university medical centres in the Netherlands, but there is one exception: students from \u2018internal\u2019 programmes receive nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not clear<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Umcs claim, however, that all students from all medical faculties in the Netherlands are \u2018internal\u2019, it emerged <\/a>last month, meaning that none of them receive an allowance. Even a Utrecht student of biomedical sciences doing an internship at the umc in Leiden or Nijmegen is therefore considered \u2018internal\u2019 and receives no money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At trade union FNV they had not fully grasped this, negotiator Elise Martijn now admits. A week and a half ago she spoke with employers about, among other things, internship allowances. But at that time she did not discuss this interpretation by the umcs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPerhaps we were na\u00efve in assuming that an Amsterdam student would also do an internship in Amsterdam. While of course they can also go to Utrecht\u201d, says Martijn. In her view, this interpretation of the collective agreement by the umcs is incorrect. She hopes that student union members without an allowance will contact FNV to make a case of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allowance after all<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to Martijn, other students have benefited from the union consultations: those who are not studying medicine. \u201cAt first it looked as though almost all university students were excluded. But that has now been clarified.\u201d Martijn mentions students from programmes such as economics or law, who should now be entitled to an internship allowance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Healthcare union NU\u201991 also believes that more students will receive an allowance from now on, while fellow union FBZ says when asked that this is not yet certain. This latter union has many academically trained doctors among its members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Netherlands Federation of University Medical Centres, NFU, has not changed its interpretation of the collective agreement. \u201cThere was no reason to say that our interpretation was wrong\u201d, a spokesperson says after the union consultations. According to him, the umcs have promised to explain more clearly to students \u201cwhat we mean by internal and external programmes\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t

\n\t\t\n\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Read more<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t