The Executive Board will not respond to the participation council's request to pay all employees on the Radboud University campus at least 14 euros per hour. The Works Council reacted with disappointment. 'You would almost start a fundraising campaign yourself.'

Pay all employees working for the university at least 14 euros per hour. That was the message in a letter from the entire Works Council sent to the Executive Board last October.

During last week’s Joint Assembly, it emerged that the Executive Board will not respond to the participation council’s request. ‘We find it distressing for these people, but at the moment there is nothing we can do for them as Radboud University’, Agnes Muskens said. The vice chair did promise to bring the request to the attention of the employers’ representation at the collective bargaining meeting.

On behalf of the Works Council, chair Amarins Thiecke reacted discontented during the meeting with the board. ‘Where is the empathy?’, she wondered aloud.

Asito

The appeal made by the Works Council last October was aimed at employees of external companies affiliated to the university, as employees of the university or Campus Detachering already earn at least 14 euros an hour. But outsourced services, and especially the cleaners working for the university through Asito, earn too little to make ends meet – even if they work full-time – according to the signatories of the letter. The same goes for security guards and some doormen.

From a letter sent to the unions at the end of November and briefly discussed in the Joint Assembly, the board says it cannot abide to that request. “While we can sympathise with your appeal, we see a number of objections regarding your proposal,” the letter, signed by board chair Daniël Wigboldus and secretary Marijke Pe, reads.

Social partners

In the letter, the college gives numerous reasons. The first is formal in nature: the Joint Assembly does not deal with the labour wages of external employees of the university. Moreover, according to the board, it is not customary for tenders to include prior requirements or wishes regarding the working conditions that organisations like Asito have to comply with. “On the contrary, sectors and other industries and the social partners within those sectors / industries have and bear that responsibility themselves.”

Additional difficulty, the board said: ongoing contracts with external organisations cannot easily be breached. Cleaning organisation Asito, for instance, entered into a new contract for a 10-year period on 1 September 2022. According to the college, breaching such contracts would lead to a “huge, if not impracticable administrative and/or legal operation.”

Finally, in the letter, the board points to “national and European developments” that could help minimum-wage employees, notably that the statutory minimum wage will be increased by 10.15 percent from 1 January 2023 and that a cap on energy prices will be introduced. The reduction in wage and income tax and the government contribution that all Dutch families will receive on energy bills in November and December also cater to these employees. Finally, according to the board, the minimum wage is likely to be raised to 14 euros an hour within two years.

Emergency fund

Works Council chair Amarins Thiecke is very disappointed with the board’s letter. ‘I sense a lack of empathy and creativity to do something for these people’, she says. ‘Surely it doesn’t have to be that difficult. Radboud University also has an Emergency Fund for students, you could make something like that for employees too.’

‘I think this letter is a real shame’

Thiecke points out that in April 2021, the board itself opted for phased outsourcing of cleaning services. ‘The Works Council was always against that,’ she says. ‘We always insisted that cleaners in outsourced services should have the same working conditions as cleaners employed by the university. That now appears not to be the case.’

The Works Council is considering further action, says Thiecke. ‘I think this letter is a real shame. You would almost start a fundraising campaign for these people yourself.’

Translated by Jan Scholten.