'Temporarily higher salary at disadvantaged schools does not solve shortages'
De Algemene Onderwijsbond does not support the temporary salary supplement for working at disadvantaged schools, which Minister Arie Slob of Education is proposing. "The teacher shortage is great everywhere, so salaries have to increase across the board. Structurally and permanently."
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Minister Slob wants to use 375 million euros from the National Education Program to temporarily better reward working in disadvantaged schools. He demands that the social partners write this down in a collective labor agreement or a covenant. The unions AOb, AVS, CNVO, FvOv, FNV and the employers' organizations PO-raad and VO-raad do not agree with this, they write in a joint brief to the House of Representatives.
There is no bank that gives you a higher mortgage on the basis of a temporary, two-year surcharge
“The minister's proposal is not going to solve the problem,” said Vice-President Jelmer Evers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs AOb. “There is a teacher shortage all over the country. This leads to a waterbed effect: the staff leaves one school, but the next school, which may have slightly fewer disadvantaged pupils, will have another vacancy as a result.”
taken away
According to the unions and employers, the shortage must be solved for all schools. Evers: “The salaries have to be raised everywhere. And structurally, because this allowance from Slob would be taken away again in two years. There is no bank that will give you a higher mortgage on the basis of a temporary, two-year surcharge.”
Such an unbalanced agreement does not belong in a collective labor agreement for the entire sector
Evers also does not see it happening that Slob's proposal will be included in the collective labor agreements. “In a collective labor agreement, unions and employers make structural agreements for suitable remuneration and working conditions for everyone who works in education. We understand that the allowance proposed by the minister does not apply to most people in education, and that it will also disappear in two years' time. Such an unbalanced agreement does not belong in a collective agreement for the entire sector."
Clash
The unanimous negative reaction of the joint education unions and employers has led to a major clash with Minister Slob. "The minister now says that we, the social partners, are blocking the allowance," said Evers. "But he can just spend the money, he doesn't need our permission at all."
Next steps
The minister is now 'deliberating on next steps', as it is said. “I am very curious,” says Evers. "And I do have a suggestion: the negotiations for the collective labor agreements in primary and secondary education have come to a standstill due to a lack of money from The Hague. Why is the minister not even concerned with that?"
Read the joint letter to the standing parliamentary committee for OCW here
