The new pay classification for universities, in which all jobs are weighed and classified according to the 'Hay-system', should have come into effect two weeks ago. According to this system aios would have to be placed in wage scale 10 with a starting salary of approximately 2,136 euros gross. A starting aio now earns approximately 1,500 euros.
The VSNU wants to keep aios, a sizable group at 6,500, outside the system. The universities claim not to have any money for the measure, which should cost approximately fifty million euros.
The unions cannot accept this. They broke off talks about the function valuation system. The system cannot be introduced for the time being, because the unions refuse to agree on the rest of the new wage system as long as the aios are not included.
Chairperson Ingrid Giebels of the Dutch National Union of PhD-students (Laioo) is happy about the unions' efforts on behalf of PhD-students. The Laioo itself is not a real union and therefore not present at the meetings between employers and employees.
According to Giebels the aio-salaries differ enormously between universities, and even faculties. 'In Nijmegen aios are already classified in scale 10, the technical universities and many law faculties also pay more. More clarity in this respect would be welcome.'
At the UT trainee research assistants are paid according to a separate aio wage-scale. 'Every PhD-student at the UT gets a monthly allowance on top of that. There is also a special service package, consisting of 20,000 guilder for each researcher', former Personnel Department deputy Gon Radstake explains. Despite her early retirement she is still involved in the function restructuring project.
'The unions do not play fair' is her opinion. The deal was, she says, that the old wage-scale structure would be linked to the new Hay system, with a separate aio-scale therefore. The UT will not be able to pay aios scale 10. æThe financial situation simply will not allow it.'
Jon Barsema is chairperson of the PhD-student interest group at the UT, the Twente Aio Beraad or TAB. He agrees with the Laioo and the unions that the aios in the Netherlands are underpaid, but in comparison to other universities the UT does not pay badly. A first-year aio earns 1,891 euros, elsewhere that is 1,500 euros, he says. Barsema would prefer that he and his colleagues are paid according to a wage-scale for 'regular employeesÆ. æMore separate regulations mean more problems.' And: 'Good guidance, good conditions when printing your dissertation and in particular a good research climate are more important to us than a bit more salary.'
