Working at the AOb
At the AOb are regularly new vacancies. You can also be active within the association voluntarily or with facilities.
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De AOb stands up for education
We are here for you and your colleagues
We are here for you and your colleagues
We support our members with personal advice on everything related to your work. Such as your terms of employment, your contract and your safety in the workplace. If a conflict arises with your employer, you can count on our support. And we provide legal assistance if needed.
De AOb is an association. This means that our course and agenda are determined by the members. You can on all many ways make your voice heard and have influence.
Each education sector has its own sector council with about fifty AOb-members. They think along about policy, regulations and terms of employment in their sector and advise the AOb. Their input determines our agenda and the focus of negotiations with the government and educational institutions.
De AOb was created on January 1, 1997 from a merger between two education unions: the General Association of Teaching Staff (ABOP) and the Dutch Association of Teachers (NGL). Together they settle on the Jaarbeursplein in Utrecht. With 73.000 members, the AOb the largest education union in one fell swoop.
On January 29, 1998, eight thousand secondary school strikers come to the demonstration in Utrecht to reduce the teaching time of teachers from 28 to 26 hours. A relay strike follows in February and in March education minister Ritzen adds 75 million guilders. The AOb signs up 1500 new members.
Action week with relay strikes in March 1999 throughout the country. The motto: 'One billion is a good start'. Nineteen thousand AOb' ers stop working. The result? An agreement of 2,4 billion guilders. Teaching staff will receive a salary increase, there will be a shortening of career lines and more money to promote teachers to higher positions.
As soon as the polls close in November 2006, the AOb the paste action: 'When natural gas runs out, knowledge is our only raw material.' This advertising campaign runs simultaneously with television commercials that support the national campaign to put education high on the investment agenda.
De AOb will start its own action group in April 2008: the Green Wave. Activist young teachers who organize debates, visit party conferences, bring cake to Minister Plasterk. They publish a manifesto in which they demand a better salary, but also more money for training to grow substantively.
On March 6, 2012, the Amsterdam Arena is completely full with 60 strikers from primary and special education against the cutbacks in appropriate education. The strike makes it clear to the public that something is going completely wrong in education. And it works: the cuts are scrapped, just like the performance-related pay.
Years of publications by the Education magazine contribute to the introduction of the Top Income Standards Act. Excessive remuneration of directors is thus curbed. Educational institutions are also obliged to publish their annual reports, after the magazine repeatedly demonstrates that this is not done sufficiently.
Sixty thousand strikers in Zuiderpark in The Hague on October 5, 2017, plus another six thousand in Groningen. The increasing teacher shortage, the pressure of work and the low salary have mobilized the entire primary education sector. The media attention is enormous and the action is a resounding success for the PO-Front.
The Supreme Court ruled that school boards must pay a transition payment pro rata if the employment is partially terminated. The AOb filed a case for a primary school teacher and won. A ruling with an impact on employment law.
If your vacation coincides with pregnancy and maternity leave, you must be able to take those vacation days at a later time. This is the ruling of the Supreme Court in a case brought by the AOb has been instituted for employees in secondary education. A victory.
The pay gap – the difference in salary between primary school teachers and their colleagues in secondary education – will be a thing of the past on 22 April 2022. A victory for the union and for AOb-director Thijs Roovers: "Colleagues have been campaigning for this for years, and personally this is a crowning achievement for me," he says.
More than six thousand signatures AOb for decent internship allowances in education. Every teaching trainee must receive a gross allowance of 750 euros for a full-time week, just like trainees with the national government or nurses. The AOb demands action from the House of Representatives.
De AOb is an association. This means that our course and agenda are determined by the General Assembly (GA) of one hundred members. These GTC appoints and controls the board, which is responsible for the progress of our policy. And that's not the only way our members can make an impact.
Day-to-day management is in the hands of the Executive Board. The Chief Executive of the AOb monitors the progress of the policy. The work organization supports the association.
Read more about the board and work organization
Each education sector has its own sector council with about fifty AOb-members. They think along about policy, regulations and terms of employment in their sector and advise the AOb.
Their input determines our agenda and the focus of negotiations with the government and educational institutions.
There are more groups, departments and networks within the AOb in which active members are committed to better education and better working conditions. For example, there is a group for starters, a group that is committed to more diversity and a group for special education.
The Post-Active sector of the AOb focuses on retired teaching staff and monitors the pensions of members who are affiliated with the ABP pension fund. The sector represents the specific interests of members with an old age pension, or a flexible pension. Also for widows and widowers of post-active members who want to remain members of the AOb this sector is emerging. For retired members, the AOb custom membership.
De AOb also works outside the Netherlands for good working conditions and for high-quality and accessible education. The international trade union work of the AOb covers a very broad field. To start with, we do internationally what we also do in the Netherlands: just trade union work.
Read more about AOb international
At the AOb are regularly new vacancies. You can also be active within the association voluntarily or with facilities.
View all vacancies
Inspirational columns, stimulating interviews, revealing investigative journalism and tips that you can immediately apply in the classroom. With the Onderwijsblad, the magazine of the AOb, you stay well informed of developments in your sector.
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(You can reclaim 40% of your union dues through your employer)