With this negotiation agreement, universities are looking to create more jobs with permanent contracts. The CAO parties have agreed that assistant professors, associate professors and full professors will – in principle – receive a permanent contract after one year. In case of a first appointment, that period will be extended to eighteen months. Temporary academic staff with a VIDI grant will likewise see their contract converted into a permanent employment contract. Marcel Nollen, vice-president of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and chief negotiator on behalf of the VSNU: “Universities collectively take a significant step towards creating more permanent employment contracts for both scientific and support and management staff. This is perfectly in line with the medium-term advice that was published recently by employees and employers.” Further agreements have also been reached about defining a reorganization, which will also involve employment protection periods being reduced in the future.

Working-from-home allowance

The collective labour agreement parties expect an increase in employees working from home once coronavirus measures are reduced. Universities, as modern employers, want to enable this. That is why the collective labour agreement parties agreed that employees in the Netherlands can adopt hybrid working, if their position and their working in a team allow this. Managers, supervisors and employees will reach agreements on the possibilities for adopting hybrid working. Universities are offering staff an internet allowance of 25 euros per month and an allowance for working from home of 2 euros per day. 

The collective labour agreement runs from 1 January 2021 to 31 March 2022 and applies to over 55,000 employees in the university sector. The text of the negotiation settlement is available online here. The collective labour agreement parties will put the negotiation settlement to their members and will attempt to sign a final collective labour agreement by no later than 1 August.

In the meantime, VSNU, WOinActie, student unions and labour unions continue to work towards a Normal Academic Standard, to ensure that the students of today receive the proper education to meet the challenges of tomorrow. They call on the House of Representatives to scrap the €149 million efficiency deduction (‘doelmatigheidskorting’). They have requested that the new cabinet make structural investments in the university sector totaling €1.1 billion, in order to 'raise the standard of academic education and research back to a Normal Academic Standard'.