Newsletter June 2026
The 2025-2026 academic year is now coming to an end. We, from the local Saco-S association at Linnaeus University, would like to wish all members a really nice and well-deserved holiday, but before that we would like to provide brief information about the work that your union has carried out during the latter part of the spring.
At the end of March, the Saco-S association held a members' meeting on the management of the operational support and the education strategy. The meeting was held in a hybrid format, where it was possible to participate in both Kalmar and Växjö, as well as via Zoom. Information about member meeting can be found in the latter part of the Newsletter from April 2026, which you can access via the link below:
In addition, during the latter part of the spring we have also held a couple of member meetings on site in Kalmar and Växjö under the heading "CURRENT with the UNION". The meeting in the last week of April was largely a continuation of the members' meeting at the end of March, and among other things, issues related to the governance of operational support were raised, as well as the work on the education strategy and the consequences of these changes in the form of the risk of increased workload, a more strained work environment, etc.
Since then, the work on the investigation into the governance of operational support has intensified, and at its June meeting, the University Board supported the investigation's direction to gather the university's operational support under the university director. At the University Board meeting in September, the Vice-Chancellor has been tasked with submitting a proposal for an overall plan for future work, with the goal of reducing costs by SEK 50 million in total during the years 2027 and 2028, which the University Board will then have to decide on. At the MBL prior to the University Board meeting in June, the trade unions highlighted the importance of the employer taking note of the MBL protocol prior to the decision on streamlining the operational support on 17 June 2025 and believe that several of the views that were communicated at that time are also relevant for the upcoming operational change. Furthermore, the trade unions pointed out that reasonable conditions and a timetable must be provided for carrying out upcoming risk and impact analyses. The trade unions also wish to be continuously informed about what is happening in terms of staffing within the organization, and that the employer ensures that the workload is reasonably distributed within the university. Regarding savings in operational support, the acting university director made a decision in May to stop hiring within the university administration, which was preceded by information at the MBL. In this context, the trade unions highlighted the risk of high workload when employees quit, etc. Managers are responsible for the work environment, the responsibility for leading the operations and setting priorities becomes especially important in a situation like this.
Regarding the issue of the educational strategy, work is underway with operational analyses of the departments at the various faculties based on their different conditions. FTK has carried out an operational analysis at one of its departments that points to a work shortage situation and this was negotiated at the MBL in June. Similarly, there has been a negotiation regarding a department at FHL. There also seems to be a risk of work shortage at FSV and there has also been a negotiation there about a work shortage at one of the faculty's departments. The Saco-S association tries to follow the work on the educational strategy at all faculties. In connection with consultations prior to faculty board meetings, the association sometimes also receives more informal information, both about the strategy and other issues. In the event of changes in operations, such issues must then be informed about and negotiated according to the MBL.
Also in the latter part of May, we carried out “CURRENT with the UNION” which largely dealt with the same issues as in April, but also something about issues related to the upcoming salary setting process. As we mentioned in the April newsletter, the trade unions signed an agreement with the university in February on the 2026 salaries for doctoral students and assistants. The collective negotiations in the RALS 2025 salary setting process have been concluded since March for those members who disagreed about their salary. The Saco-S association intends to update its website about salary immediately after the summer as a step in the continued implementation of the RALS 2026 salary setting process, which will (retroactively) involve new salaries from 2026-10-01. At the turn of May/June, an agreement was reached with the employer on the actual salary setting process for 2026, which did not contain any decisive changes in relation to the previous salary setting process. The link below leads to the Saco-S association's salary page:
When it comes to salary issues, Saco-S has also participated in training for managers – where we have presented union views on the salary setting process and, together with HR and participants, have held a dialogue on salary issues. Ahead of the upcoming salary revision (RALS 2026), we have met with the university management so that we, as parties, can highlight how we view issues ahead of the upcoming salary revision. From Saco-S's side, we see that all groups with teaching and research staff are ranked low at the university, as do some groups on the T/A side. At the meeting, we also highlighted the importance and the employer's responsibility to work with salary mapping to discover unreasonable salary differences based on gender. In the continued work on salaries, we need to sign an agreement on the process with the employer, and draw up a joint action plan. From Saco-S's side, we have also participated in meetings with deans and the university director to raise issues about the university's priorities.
The Saco-S association is planning to have a meeting on salary and salary setting in September to raise issues regarding the wage setting process both generally and locally, but where the focus will be on the processes that are found at the university. If you have questions about salary and wage setting, you are welcome to contact someone in the Saco-S association's negotiation delegation, which consists of Karina Petersson (karina.petersson@lnu.se), Eva Pohl (eva.pohl@lnu.se) and Jan Andersson (jan.andersson@lnu.se).
Last spring, Saco-S, together with the other union bargaining organization (OFR/S), held a central dispute negotiation, where we believed that the employer had violated the local working hours agreement for teachers. Unfortunately, we can still note that most institutions deviate from the agreement regarding planning based on the calendar year. The agreement also gives union organizations access to the original planning. This requires making “scenarios” in Retendo, which unfortunately rarely happens. Negotiations are also underway on a revised local working hours agreement. We do not see any major problems with the design of the agreement, but we do see that the application has changed over time, which in many cases has contributed to increased workload. Therefore, as we see it, a joint party group needs to be established to “maintain” the agreement.
We also want to draw attention to a jointly developed routine for managers when planning their work schedules. We think that it can also provide support for you as a member when it comes to your own work schedule. You can reach the routine via the link below (in Swedish).
Routine for work schedule planning and consultation
During the fall of 2026, our members will have the opportunity to participate in a webinar with webinars on current union issues. The lectures are arranged centrally by SULF and are held at lunchtime – an easy way to learn more and stay updated. Below you will find the program with links to the webinars during September and October.
https://sulf.se/en/calendar/?category=webinar
In addition, you have the opportunity to obtain information about several different types of union issues from previously conducted webinars via the link below:
In early October, the Saco-S association plans to hold its annual meeting. If you are interested in getting more actively involved in union issues, you are welcome to contact the Nomination Committee's convener, Dino Viscovi (dino.viscovi@lnu.se).
At the University Board meeting in April, a final report was adopted with the university's goals for 2020-2025. The union organizations pointed out to the University Board at MBL that they perceived that the report could be perceived as normative to some extent and that it was sometimes difficult to find evidence for statements made. In addition, the trade unions pointed out that “the areas that deal with working conditions and workload, but also the areas of equal conditions and sustainability work, should have been written up in a stronger way in the report”. When it came to the issue of the business plan and financial framework, the trade unions highlighted that they do not fully make the same risk assessment as the employer, but believe “that the risks in terms of workload should have had a higher estimate”. In addition, they highlighted that in the long term “the risk regarding student recruitment may increase because the youth cohorts are decreasing and the throughput of certain student groups seems to be decreasing”. With regard to the University Board meeting in June, in addition to what was previously highlighted, the trade unions at MBL have presented their views to the University Board regarding the decision on the new employment order, that they perceive a possible contradiction between the teacher exception related to open science and see a need for an established way of working with signing agreements with copyright holders, and they are asking how the university is working on the issue.
The other union work for the Saco-S association largely consists of working together with other union organizations participate in consultation with the various faculties and in weekly MBL negotiations. In collaboration with other trade unions, the Saco-S association also participates in managerial recruitment, primarily by conducting interviews with the candidates concerned. At the time of writing, the Saco-S association is participating in the vice-chancellor recruitment process by conducting interviews with the candidates who have been selected together with other trade unions.
As before, the Saco-S association has met with both groups of members and represented individual members on various union issues on several occasions during the spring. If you would like support on any union issue in any context or have questions or concerns, you are always welcome to contact us.
At a central level, Saco-S consists of 18 unions, of which 14 have members at the university. Information about contact persons and activities within the unions can be found on the Saco-S association's website. At present, as far as we know, only SULF is conducting local operations at the university. The contact personand chair of the SULF local association is Maria Bergström (maria.bergstrom@lnu.se), teacher at the Department of Chemistry and Biomedicine in Kalmar. If there are additional contact persons for other unions within Saco-S at the university, we would be grateful to receive information if it updates our website.
If you have questions that you would like to raise with your local Saco-S association, you are welcome to contact one of our board members. We gratefully accept suggestions and opinions on what Saco-S can/should work on further. Via the link below you can find contact information for the board members, and which board members participate in both internal working groups and in various bodies within the university:
After another year of work, we hope that you can enjoy and relax properly during the upcoming vacation. Wishing you a wonderful and restful summer!
Eva Pohl and Karina Petersson – and the rest of the board of the Saco-S association at Linnaeus University
PS. During the vacation, you can contact us by emailing Eva Pohl (eva.pohl@lnu.se) or Karina Petersson (karina.petersson@lnu.se). We check the emails at regular intervals – although not daily. Alternatively, for more general union questions, you can contact SULF's member advisory service (https://sulf.se/om-sulf/kontakta-oss/).