Newsletter December -22

In October, the Saco-S association's annual meeting was held as a hybrid meeting. In addition to the annual meeting negotiations, Michael Svedemar, our contact ombudsman from SULF central, talked about, among other things, the new LAS rules that came into force from 1 October 2022. You can access the minutes from the annual meeting via the link below (in Swedish only):

Protokoll årsmöte Saco-S 2022-10-05

The Saco-S board's work with the salary revision 2022 and the salary setting process at LNU continues. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, the salary setting process for 2022 is not ready for the roughly twenty members who have turned down the employer's proposal for a new salary. We are in the final phase of handling disagreements in the collective negotiations and hopefully we can finish these early next year. The reason that it took so long is due, among other things, to the fact that in some cases the employer submitted a proposal for a new salary later than what the timetable contained in the joint agreement between the parties stipulates.

For the sixth year, the Saco-S association has carried out an evaluation of the salary setting process among the members and here we see that the salary setting process for the year 2022 still does not work satisfactorily in some respects, although improvements can be deduced. For example, we see that more people have had salary-setting conversations and that these have been linked to the salary criteria to a greater extent. More also state that it was valuable to be able to speak with their immediate manager and more than before feel that the conversation resulted in a reasonable salary. From the survey, it can be seen that the proportion of members who carry out combined employee and wage-setting talks has increased over time, which is not in line with the agreement that exists between the parties for the form of the wage-setting process. The latest salary revision was the last part of a 3-year agreement where the salary range in 2020 was SEK 1,000 for all, in 2021 when the university had a general salary range of 1.8% and in 2022 when the corresponding salary range at the overall level was 3.6 %. For that reason, the latest revision can be perceived as better. At the same time, we have entered a period of very high inflation, and the real wage increases of recent years have been wiped out with this. After the weekends, the evaluation of RALS 2022 will be supplemented with results from open-ended questions from this year's evaluation. However, via the link below, you can reach a first version of the evaluation, which also contains comparisons from previous pay audits (in Swedish only):

Utvärdering RALS 2022 (ver 221221)

Upcoming salary revision applies to performances from 04/01/2022 to 09/30/2023. The work on the agreement in this revision will be intensified at the beginning of spring 2023. We currently know nothing about what levels we will end up at. It partly depends on how the contract movement in the private sector of the labor market will end up.

During the autumn, we tried to arrange a meeting with the vice-chancellor for sustainability to, among other things, raise questions about equal pay, but unfortunately to no avail. A new acting vice-chancellor for sustainability has now been appointed and we plan to raise this issues with him in spring. In completed salary surveys, it appears that there are differences in salary levels that may be without objective reason between men and women, usually to the men's advantage.

This autumn, as in some previous years, work environment surveys have been carried out. Although several results this time on a general level are marginally better, the survey shows that there is still considerable potential for improvement. At the unit level, the work of developing action plans and following them up is therefore of great importance. Something that appears clearly in the survey responses is that the workload continues to be perceived as high among employees.

During this year, we have discussed with service planners and the HR manager about the basis for service planning and conditions in relation to local working time agreements for teachers and the use and handling of Retendo. After all, Retendo is a tool for documenting the duty plan, but the duty plan and changes in it must be communicated and determined in consultation with the employees. It happens that this does not work satisfactorily on some devices. In this matter, we work together with other trade unions. The administrative time for teachers has previously been 85 h (5%), but is now 85-100 h per school year according to the local working time agreement. Saco-S has initiated a local dispute negotiation regarding time for administrative tasks at one department at LNU where only 2.5% per academic year was set aside for this type of tasks. The negotiation is adjourned until after the weekends and below is a link to the local working time agreement. (in Swedish only):

Lokalt kollektivavtal om arbetstid för lärare vid Linnéuniversitetet

During parts of 2022, joint work between employers and trade unions has been going on regarding issues of co-influence at the university. The work to develop questions about participation and co-influence has been discussed in terms of both content and form. A document that intends to take a more comprehensive approach to various conversations and consultations at different levels of the organization has been up for discussion. It contains conversations/consultations at management level, as well as consultations at faculty level and at central administration and at the university library. The purpose of this work is to supplement the formal MBL procedure by enabling the parties to exchange information at an earlier stage of various development and change processes.

During autumn, we have had a few member meetings in hybrid form. On November 17, Sanna Wolk, SULF's national president, was invited to speak about copyright & the right to research and teaching materials. On December 13 and 14, TA members were invited to information and discussion meetings about, among other things, working time agreements for TA employees, principles for home work and the salary and invoice project. In spring, corresponding meetings will be held by faculty for teachers/researchers when we, among other things, will be based on experience regarding issues like workload, working hours, duty plans and Retendo. You can reach images from presentations at the autumn member meetings via the links below, as well as the local working time agreement for TA employees (in Swedish only):

Medlemsmöte med Sanna Wolk den 17 november

Medlemsmöten riktade till TA-personal den 13 och 14 december

Lokalt arbetstidsavtal för teknisk och administrativ personal vid Linnéuniversitetet

During autumn, the Saco-S association, together with other trade unions, in addition to consultation with the various faculties and university management and the weekly MBL negotiations, also participated in manager/prefect recruitments and then mainly through interviews with relevant candidates.

The Saco-S association has also represented individual members on various union issues on several occasions during the autumn. If you need support in any trade union issue in any context or have questions and concerns, you are always welcome to contact us. Via the link below you can reach contact details and division of responsibilities within the board.

https://www.saco.se/en/lokala-webbplatser/saco-s-foreningen-vid-linneuniversitetet/kontakt/

We also gratefully accept suggestions and opinions on what Saco-S can/should work on further.

With this, we wish that we all, after responsible and intensive work, can enjoy and relax properly during the coming holidays.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

From the board of the Saco-S association at Linnaeus University

through

Jan Andersson and Gunilla Gunnarsson (chairman and vice-chairman respectively)