University salaries will increase by 4 percent and staff will receive a one-time bonus of 400 euros. This was the result of the collective agreement negotiations last week. The discussion about permanent contracts for lecturers and researchers is still ongoing.
The salary increase will take effect on July 1, the same month that staff will receive their bonus, which will be 400 euros in proportion to their terms of employment. Staff earning the university minimum wage will receive a higher bonus: 750 euros for a full-time contract.
Anticipating the new rules that will take effect on August 1, universities are also improving parental leave. Parents will receive 70 percent of their salary instead of 62.5 and will also be allowed to take leave if they’ve been employed at their university for less than a year.
Stuck
In the meantime, a resolution on more permanent contracts for lecturers and researchers is nowhere in sight.
‘We’re completely stuck’, says Donald Pechler, who represents the General Union of Education in the negotiations. ‘Employees’ legal position varies not just per university, but even per faculty and programme. We’ll be using the period ahead to sort everything out and make sure we have a central focal point for the next collective agreement.’
While universities have made no solid promises, they will investigate how to improve lecturers’ contract position.
Approval
However, because of the high inflation, the unions and universities didn’t want to make their staff wait too long for a pay increase. That’s why they decided on an agreement that mainly focused on wages. This agreement does still need to be approved by employers and union members.
The new collective agreement will remain valid until April 1, 2023.