29 June 2023

Universities of the Netherlands and the employee organisations have reached a provisional negotiation settlement on the Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) for Dutch Universities 2023. This includes agreements on structural salary increases, a one-off payment and the number of permanent contracts for teachers. The CAO parties will submit the negotiated agreement to their membership and aim to reach a final CAO agreement no later than 26 July.

Structural salary increase and one-off payment

Under the terms of the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, all employees will receive a salary increase of 9% with effect from 1 August. This increase will be paid in September.  Because of increased costs due to inflation, this benefit will vary for different pay scales. Based on a full-time employment contract, the one-off payment will be € 1,200 gross for employees who receive the sector’s minimum hourly wage, € 1,000 gross for employees up to and including scale 9, and € 800 gross for employees from scale 10.

More permanent contracts for lecturers

Universities will increase the number of permanent jobs based on this negotiation settlement. Within three years, the number of lecturers on temporary contracts as a percentage of academic staff consisting of professors, university lecturers and senior lecturers should be reduced to 13.5%. The number of temporary contracts in this group is currently 15%.

Term of the agreement

The CAO will run from 1 April 2023 up to and including 30 June 2024 and applies to the almost 64,000 employees working within the university sector. The text of the  negotiation settlement including all the amendments can be read here (in Dutch).

Subsequent steps

The CAO parties will submit the negotiation settlement to their members and aim to reach a final CAO agreement by 26 July at the latest. HRM will then map out the impact of the new agreements for Leiden University and, in cooperation with the faculties, will draw up a plan of action for their implementation. Further details on this are expected to follow by the end of September. The agreements still have to be converted into a final CAO text, which is expected to be available by the end of September.

Vote

Are you a member of the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions (in Dutch: Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging/FNV)? Then you can cast your vote on the provisional negotiation settlement up to 21 July at noon.