SALARY
Here, you will find information about the salary-setting process at the university in the form of; guidance for the upcoming salary revision – the salary policy and criteria at the university – an excerpt from the local agreement at the latest salary setting – and a link to "Saco Salary Search", etc.
Published: Tuesday 22 Feb 2022
Last updated: Monday 15 May 2023
Discussions with the employer have begun regarding the upcoming salary revision.
However, for PhD students and research assistants, there is a local collective agreement that usually does not establish new salaries as described below. You can find the current agreement for PhD students (in Swedish) via the link below. This agreement needs to be renegotiated in the coming fall, so that a new agreement can be in place by the turn of the year 2023/2024.
To prepare for the upcoming salary revision, we are trying to learn from past salary-setting processes. Work has been initiated to formulate an agreement between the employer and the Saco-S union ahead of the upcoming salary revision. When this agreement is in place, we will share it with the members of the Saco-S union.
During the spring and early fall, salary-setting managers will conduct the first salary-setting discussion, which will focus on your performance and responsibilities during the period from April 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023.
As a support in the upcoming salary revision, you are directed to a link on SULF's website* about salaries and salary-setting. The site includes a couple of films and other information with guidance for salary-setting. You can access the films and other information via the link below.
https://sulf.se/en/work-salary-and-benefits/salary-and-salary-interview/
In addition, you can access a PowerPoint presentation (in Swedish) via the link below that highlights salaries and salary-setting within Saco-S, both at an overarching level and at the university level:
Salary setting talks within Saco-S
The salary-setting is based on a framework agreement for salaries within the state (RALS) wich is signed between Saco-S and the Swedish National Agency for Education. You access the agreement (in Swedish) via the following link:
This agreement has been internally evaluated within Saco-S in previous years, and discussions about the agreement will begin with the Swedish National Agency for Education during this year.
At the university, there are also several local agreements related to salary-setting, as well as to salary and other compensation. For PhD students, there is a local agreement on salary, as well as for hourly TA staff. Additionally, there is a local agreement on overtime pay for teachers, among others. You can access these agreements (in English) via the link below:
https://lnu.se/en/medarbetare/employed-at-lnu/steering-documents/
The salary criteria at the university have included general criteria for all employees for several years, as well as more in-depth criteria for teachers and researchers, technical and administrative staff, and managers. You can access the salary policy and current salary criteria via the link below:
https://lnu.se/en/medarbetare/employed-at-lnu/lon-and-replacements2/lonesatting/
"For the basis of the salaries set at the educational institution, there should also be an agreement between the Saco-S union and the employer, which primarily aims to regulate the actual salary-setting process. Regarding the upcoming salary revision where the new salary will apply from 2023-10-01, there is no agreement yet. However, it should be mentioned that in the previous agreement, we agreed with the employer that the salary-setting manager, and not just representatives from HR, unlike previous years, would be present during the collective bargaining. This has now happened for everyone who disagreed with the employer about the new salary and therefore participated in the collective bargaining in 2022. Salary-setting managers have been asked to develop their reasoning for the salary setting. Based on that conversation, Saco-S has put forward arguments for higher salary increases for everyone, based on, among other things, the employer's vague justifications regarding salary criteria, discrepancies between performance and the new proposed salary.
At the end of a salary revision, an agreement is written that regulates the salary for members who declined the employer's proposal for a new salary. This agreement also includes an appendix (Appendix 2) with measures that the parties agree should/need to be developed in the upcoming salary revision. In recent years, there has also been an additional appendix (Appendix 3) that contains things that the Saco-S union believes need to be improved regarding salary setting - but where the employer does not share the same opinion. You can find these appendices (in Swedish) via the link below:
Protocol new salaries 2022 (Appendix 2 and Appendix 3)
The employer has an obligation to conduct a salary survey annually, where salary differences between women and men should be in focus. A key idea in this work is that unfair salary differences between women and men should be discovered, and that the upcoming salary revision(s) should address this. This time, we as the union have chosen not to sign the mentioned salary survey, as we believe that we should have been more involved in the process and had access to the same data as the employer. Below you will find the comments that the trade unions have sent to the employer (in Swedish) regarding the 2022 salary survey:
Comments on the 2022 salary survey
Based on results from member surveys, the Saco-S union has compiled evaluations of the salary-setting process in the past six salary revisions. The latest of these evaluations contains comparisons of results fromprevious salary revisions, as well as a concluding summary of results from questions with open response options in this year's evaluation. You can access the evaluation (in Swedish) via the link below:
Evaluation RALS 2022 (ver. 230118 rev.)
On a national level, SULF has conducted an evaluation of the salary-setting process at colleges and universities in the previous year. You can access the report "Salary-setting conversations as a salary-setting model in the higher education sector - evaluation" (in Swedish) via the link below:
To get an idea of the salary level, as a member of a Saco union, you can use "Saco Salary Search," which you can access (in Swedish) via the link below:
https://www.saco.se/karriar/jag-ska-loneforhandla/saco-lonesok/
If you have any questions about salaries and salary negotiations, you are welcome to contact someone in the Saco-S association's negotiation delegation for salaries:
Jan Andersson (jan.andersson@lnu.se)
Gunilla Gunnarsson (gunilla.gunnarsson@lnu.se)
Karina Petersson (karina.petersson@lnu.se)
* Since SULF is the Saco-S association at the educational institution with the most members, it is also our contact association - from which we seek support in labor union matters.