Employees who have experienced a ‘corona delay’ can have their contract extended. Radboud University has made special arrangements for that purpose based on recent collective labour agreement (CAO) decisions. Contracts can be extended to the end of 2020 at the latest.

Two and a half months. That’s how long PhD candidate Laura Claret Fernández (26) was unable to do any experiments in FNWI’s microbiology lab during the first wave of corona, as she told Vox at the beginning of June. Due to the pandemic, all non-essential research on campus stopped, including her research on nitrogen-consuming bacteria. Radboud University now has a compensation arrangement for researchers like Claret Fernández, said  Wilma de Koning, vice-chair of the Executive Board.

Everyone whose research was delayed because of the corona crisis and whose contract ends this calendar year can have their contract extended at the cost of Radboud University if such an extension cannot be otherwise realised, for example via money from the project someone is working on, such as the Dutch Research Council (NWO). Moreover, the arrangement, which will soon be finalised by the Executive Board, applies only if the delay cannot be made good before a contract expires.

Alarm

The corona crisis has affected PhD candidates and postdocs more than all other scientists. They do most of the scientific hands-on work such as lab experiments, which often stopped during the past few months. In addition, they work on a temporary contract, usually ranging from two to four years. In that period, they have to be as productive as possible in order to be able to advance their scientific careers.

Various organisations that represent the interests of young researchers, such as the De Jonge Akademie, the Promovendi Netwerk Nederland and PostdocNL have begun to sound the alarm. Last month they sent an urgent letter to Minister Van Engelshoven (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science) asking for a support package of 350 million euros.

Delays caused by personal circumstances also covered by the arrangement

Radboud University is also concerned about the expiring contracts, said vice-chair De Koning via Zoom, which is why the university has drawn up its own arrangement. If someone can show that they were unable to do research for three months – not even in an alternative way such as working at a computer instead of in the lab – they can get a three-month contract extension.

Delays caused by private circumstances are also covered by the arrangement. De Koning: ‘For example, people who had to care for their small children at home because school or day care was closed. An extension is also possible in those situations.’

(Partially) also for OBP

The arrangement applies only to delays in the areas of research or teaching. However, support and administrative staff (OBP) can use the arrangement as long as they were involved in research or teaching, such as an analyst. The ‘corona extension’ does not apply to OBP contracts for people working elsewhere, such as at the sports centre or the catering services on campus.

Not everyone automatically experienced a delay during the past few months of corona, De Koning emphasised. ‘Don’t forget that, for some people, their research went faster because they didn’t have to teach.’ Employees who are eligible for the arrangement can speak with their manager.

‘This is not a limited budget’

The university will pay the extensions from a separate budget that universities made available for this calendar year in the most recent CAO, which was finalised just before summer began. De Koning was the main negotiator for the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU). This budget concerns 0.45 percent of university wage costs. Radboud University may perhaps spend more, said the vice-chair: ‘This is not a limited budget.’

But the money does have to be spent in 2020, De Koning emphasised. This means this budget can be used to extend expiring contracts until 31 December at the latest. ‘This is why we (the Executive Board, ed.) have asked the faculties to check to see who is eligible for an extension and to submit those cases to us in September. We had already asked the faculties to extend contracts that expired before September for employees with corona-related delays.’

No national agreements have yet been made for contracts that expire in 2021. De Koning: ‘But the problem may be even bigger by then. We expressly stated this during the CAO negotiations, and the VSNU has drawn the minister’s attention to this on several occasions. So we have also asked the faculties to now assess the situation for 2021.’ The vice chair was unable to say whether or not contracts at Radboud University could also be extended then.

Increasing pension contributions

In principle, the university should easily be able to bear the financial consequences of the arrangement. In 2019 Radboud University’s personnel costs were 280 million euros, and 0.45 percent of this is 1.26 million euros. Even a large overrun will still fall within the surplus of about 10 million that the university had left in its budget in 2019 for the second year in a row.

‘The university has to remain financially sound’

Nevertheless, De Koning is concerned about the future. ‘I think that universities won’t feel the effects of corona until later: study delays, for example, delayed procedures for research subsidies and declining income from catering outlets like De Refter.’

What De Koning is saying is that the university won’t be able to make compensatory arrangements forever. ‘We think it’s important that our employees suffer as little as possible from the corona pandemic. But unfortunately our pockets aren’t infinitely deep. In the end, the university has to remain financially sound.’