Increase in temporary contracts is AOb eyesore
The number of temporary contracts at Dutch universities continues to grow. This is apparent from the answer given by Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf to questions from the House of Representatives. The AOb has been fighting for more permanent jobs for years.
Among professors and associate professors plays little or no problem. Almost all of them have a permanent position. Lower on the university career ladder, this is still not self-evident.
Thirty percent of university lecturers have a temporary contract. That is one percentage point more than last year, despite all kinds of efforts and intentions by universities to offer permanent contracts more often. For the other lecturers (without research tasks), that share is twice as much: 61 percent. A few years earlier it was only 53 percent and in 2005 it was even less: 43 percent. There is a lot to do, especially around these teachers.
Lecturers and researchers must be given a permanent contract after one year if they perform well
In dog concluded by the unions with the Universities of the Netherlands this spring, it has been agreed to start a study into the legal position of lecturers at universities, with the aim of improving it. All universities must cooperate in this. Donald Pechler of the AOb said about this earlier: 'We are stuck when it comes to permanent contracts for teachers. It is different at every university, and the legal position also varies greatly at faculty and educational level. We will use the coming period to really get everything to the surface, so that we can arrange it centrally in the coming collective labor agreement.' In the previous collective labor agreement, steps have already been taken for professors, assistant professors and support functions. Pechler: 'Now we want to extend that to teachers and researchers. They should be given a permanent contract after one year if they function properly.'
Supporters
Despite the steps taken in the previous collective labor agreement, the support staff is also more often on a temporary appointment. It was once 10 percent, for years it remained at 15 percent and in recent years it has crept up to 18 percent.
One university is not the other. Utrecht is still the champion of temporary contracts: 90 percent of the teachers there have no permanent appointment. At the other end of the spectrum is Eindhoven University of Technology, where only 31 percent of these lecturers have an end date in their contract.
'Always not giving a permanent contract is against the law and the European directive', according to Pechler. 'With structural work it is not the intention to always fire people, as is logical with seasonal work or when it concerns a project. Education is not a project.'
By the way, Dijkgraaf also wants to commit to permanent contracts, he said earlier. He does this, among other things, through the starter grants for new university lecturers and through the conditions for the sector plans that universities must make together.
Disposable teacher
Unions and action groups have been running for years to hope against temporary appointments. At the University of Amsterdam there was a check strike to force more permanent jobs. In Utrecht, a 'disposable teacher' went to court because he did not get a permanent contract, but he has that case verloren.
De AOb is pushing for more permanent jobs.
