18 May 2022
The umbrella organisation Universities of the Netherlands and the employees’ organisations reached a negotiation settlement on the 2022 Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU) on 12 May. As part of this, a joint study is to be initiated to work out how the position of teaching staff can be improved in the next collective labour agreement term. Geert ten Dam, President of the UvA’s Executive Board: ‘We’re eager to improve the position of teaching staff now rather than await this study. We want to set a new policy for teaching staff that strikes a better balance between temporary and permanent appointments and ensures a realistic workload and scope for development. This is urgently needed, and lecturers deserve a solution in de short term.’
Friday, 13 May saw the new lecturer policy back on the agenda of the tripartite consultation between the Executive Board and representatives of the University Local Consultative Committee (UCLO) and the Central Works Council (COR). ‘We’re close to reaching an agreement and are actually hoping to be in a position to discuss the final details in our next meeting on 31 May’, explains Gerwin van der Pol on behalf of the Central Works Council.
‘The UvA’s new policy will need to bolster the position of teaching staff, recognising the essential contribution they make to the education at our university. We need to do such things as increase job security, ensure the appointment fits the employee’s tasks and provide more career prospects for both junior and experienced lecturers’, says Marjolein Hogenbirk from the University Local Consultative Committee.
Although most university lecturers are on a permanent contract, this is uncommon among teaching staff. Furthermore, lecturers in the Lecturer 4 (D4) category in particular tend to be on relatively short-term contracts. That needs to change, according to the new policy:
Finalisation by the summer
In view of the urgency and the advanced stage of the policy development, the UvA has decided to stick to its intention to complete the new teaching staff policy by the summer. Efforts will be directed towards finalising the teaching staff policy in the next tripartite consultation on 31 May, after which we will continue down the usual administrative route.
See also: ‘New UvA teaching staff policy’, news article from 12 April 2022