A group of employees at the University of Groningen (UG), including full and associate professors, have launched a petition for a fairer collective labour agreement, following a national initiative. The title of the petition is ‘Euros instead of percentages.’
Over the past few years, full professors and associate professors have gained hundreds of euros more per month due to salary increases — much more than their lower-paid colleagues. Salaries rose by 9 percent in 2023, 4.7 percent last year, and a wage demand of 7 percent is on the table for the upcoming labour agreement negotiations.
High earners benefit more from percentage-based pay raises. ‘But groceries have become more expensive for everyone’, say the petition’s initiators.
The most money
‘Especially in times of budget cuts, it’s irresponsible to continue enriching those with the most money. It’s absolutely necessary to push for more equality in the upcoming labour agreement negotiations’, they write. ‘Improvements in purchasing power should benefit all university employees.’
According to the petitioners, unions have previously advocated for ‘euros instead of percentages’, but the employer organisation Universities of the Netherlands (UNL) has refused to go along. ‘They prefer to continue widening the gap between salary scales.’
The petitioners say the desire for a fairer wage distribution is widely shared — even among full professors and associate professors.
The petition can be found here (in Dutch and English)