Primary education collective labor agreement is praised in the House of Representatives
During a debate about the workload and salaries in primary education, there was a lot of appreciation in the Lower House today about the negotiation agreement reached at the beginning of June, which will significantly improve teachers.
Image: Martijn Beekman (National government)
Education minister Arie Slob said he still remembered where he was when the news about the agreement reached him. He spoke today of a 'memorable collective agreement, which, as far as I'm concerned, can be added with capital letters to the collective agreement annals of primary education.'
With the collective labor agreement the 270 million euros that the cabinet is setting aside for improving teacher salaries in primary education will be used, and 70 million euros that was earmarked for the job mix. According to Slob there is no more in it; the PO front has previously calculated that there are another 600 million euro is needed for salary improvement.
The unions put up after the summer vacation continue their actions because they want to further close the pay gap with secondary education. The SP, together with GroenLinks and the PvdA, today submitted a motion calling on the cabinet to equalize teacher salaries in primary and secondary education during the current term of office. Slob advised against this motion.
Fire letter
There was also applause from the opposition banks for the new collective bargaining agreements, although concerns about the teacher shortage have not yet been allayed. For example, SP MP Peter Kwint referred to one recent urgent letter of the Education Council, which advocates a national task force in the short term to be able to deal with the acute shortages.
Slob did not want to anticipate a later official reaction too far, but did show little feeling for that suggestion. 'I have hesitations about a national task force, because that will again be a whole group of people who are probably very busy,' said the minister, who sees more in a regional approach with an 'important, major role' for employers. Despite the alarming undertone at the Education Council, Slob claimed to view the advice as 'a clear underlining of the fairly integrated approach we have.'
Click here for the submitted motions, on which the Lower House will vote on Tuesday.
