De AOb represents the interests of members who work at one of the fourteen Dutch universities.
De latest collective labor agreement applies - retroactively - from April 1, 2023 and runs until June 30, 2024. That is almost sixteen months in total. In the collective labor agreement consultation the AOb the largest union, the negotiators came in June 2023 to a collective labor agreement.
The agreement contains a good wage increase and also a clear and concrete step towards more permanent jobs for teachers
AObsector director Donald Pechler about the latest collective agreement.
Employees in academic education are given at least two development days a year to work on sustainable employability. These days may also be saved if a written agreement is made about this before the end of the year. Unused days without an appointment will expire at the end of the calendar year. The use of the days can be recorded in a portfolio.
The collective labor agreement of the Dutch universities states that a 'number of appropriate development initiatives' must take place each year for support and management staff (obp staff). A plan is drawn up for this in consultation with the employer.
These are the most important agreements from the Collective Labor Agreement for Dutch Universities 2023-2024.
You will receive a structural salary increase of 9 percent as of 1 August 2023.
The one-off benefit varies in size. If you work for the minimum hourly wage, you will receive a one-off payment of EUR 1200 gross. An employee in scale 9 receives 1000 euros gross, and from scale 10 a benefit of 800 euros applies (all in proportion to the employment).
About 300 full-time positions on a temporary contract will be converted into permanent positions or positions for university lecturers within a maximum of three years. The percentage of temporary contracts for teaching staff must fall from 15 to 13,5 percent.
There will be a 'month of the union' at the start of the academic year. If you become a member of a union in this month, you will be reimbursed half of your first annual contribution, with a maximum of one hundred euros per employee.
In the joint effort, the unions have made proposals to give all functions more certainty of permanent jobs. For teachers and researchers, however, this met with great resistance from employers. Nevertheless, we have made agreements for lecturers and researchers that offer better prospects for promotion to assistant professor positions. As internal candidates, they have a priority position in the event of equal suitability. Current WP with a vidi also get a permanent job.
The Local Consultation will play an important role in discussing the need for a flexible layer of teachers and researchers, among others, in order to lay the foundation for limiting this. An example could be the reduction of temporary employment contracts in part-time.
Until 1 July 2023, the current term of 13 months applies. After that, the term of 10 or 11 months applies.
Older employees with an employment contract of 15 years and who are 5 years or less before the state pension age will receive a dismissal protection period of 1 months from 2023 July 12. For the other employees, the further shortening of the term will not apply until 1 January 2025.
On the other hand, during the dismissal protection period, employees are completely exempted to find other work. Employees also receive a budget in line with the market for professional help to find other work and the mobility premium from the collective labor agreement continues to apply.
Only assistant professors, associate professors and professors who already have a temporary employment contract are covered by the scheme. However, all the conditions stated therein must be met. It is important that if you perform structural work in the positions, you do not fall under the bottleneck scheme.
The Local Consultative Body, in which the unions are members, makes agreements about the division of working hours and the monitoring of private time. In addition, agreements must be made with the Local Consultative Body about a realistic task assignment in relation to the size of the employment, whereby the standards for this must be transparent, reasonable and realistic. The participation body must take into account the agreements of the Local Consultative Body. This also provides an individual basis for the annual review.
Working from home is neither a right nor an obligation. Agreements are made with the employee, the team and the manager about the possibilities of working from home. The compensation of 2 euros per working day at home is equal to the compensation calculated by Nibud. This is a net fee. This also applies to the internet fee.
Universities make agreements about the travel allowance for the days that employees work at the university. The Local Consultation makes agreements about hybrid working.
You decide for yourself whether the behavior or an action of another person crosses borders and/or is undesirable for you. The assessment of whether or not certain behaviors (verbal or physical) are permissible for you is subjective and personal. Culture or social norms can influence this. So it may be that something is not acceptable to you, but it is to others. Therefore, always make it clear where your limits lie.
If the limits specified by you are not observed, you can go to the ombudsman associated with your university (see the flow charts below).
If you can't figure it out yourself and you need help and support, get it contact Contact our employees of the Information and Advice Center.
For reports and complaints, look here what to do and where to go. For English, click here.
For reports and complaints to special universities, click here. For English, click here.
In this collective labor agreement it has been agreed that from now on there will be a 'Trade Union Month'. This is in September. If you become a member of the union, you will receive half of the contribution - up to a maximum of 100 euros - back from your employer. A very nice arrangement. If you are curious about more details about this scheme and whether you can also take advantage of it, please read more on our website special promotion page.
NB! Trade Union Month is slightly different from the regular arrangement for reclaiming trade union contributions at the end of the year. This is a tax advantage. By this arrangement you can always use it if you become a member of an association as an employee.
Yes, this is possible. Employees can receive a tax benefit through their employer on the amount paid for trade union contributions. You can find this in Article 5.4 of the collective labor agreement
It means that you get a part - 30 to 50 percent - of your contribution back every year through your employer, a nice advantage! To benefit from this, you must submit the 'annual union contribution statement' to your employer every year - usually at the beginning of November. The AOb sends this annual statement to all members.
Do you have any questions about this arrangement? Then ask your employer through the HR employee which steps you need to go through. NB! This arrangement is different from the 'Trade Union Month'. Look at also our page in which we further explain this tax scheme or what you should do if you have not received the annual statement.
The more members, the stronger we are in the next negotiations. And as a member you vote on collective bargaining proposals.
