Salary
Below you will find information about the salary setting process at Linnaeus University. This includes, among other things, the ongoing and previous salary revision, first for doctoral students/amanuensis followed by the process for other Saco-S-affiliated members. There are also some links to i.a. salary policy and salary criteria at LNU and "Saco salary search".
Ongoing work with salary revision for PhD students and amanuensis
There is a special local collective agreement for PhD students and amanuensis. However, the current agreement will be renegotiated relatively soon. We have had initial contacts with the other trade union (Offentliganställdas Förhandlingsråd - OFR) that concludes agreements for PhD students and together we have contacted the employer to plan that work. The employer, like us, is in the preparatory work for the upcoming negotiation. This means, according to our assessment, that it is unclear whether a new agreement will be ready by the turn of the year 2023/2024 - but if we as parties are not too far apart, a new agreement should be ready during the month of January at the latest. You can reach the current agreement (in Swedish) via the link below:
Ongoing work with salary revision for other Saco-S affiliated members
The salary revision RALS 2023 for other Saco-S affiliated members has now started. The salary setting that takes place at the university is based on an agreement between the Saco-S association and the employer, which aims to regulate the salary setting process. Such an agreement was signed between Saco-S and the employer at the end of October. The new agreement is one-year, unlike the previous one, which was exceptionally three-year. See link below:
Salary-setting managers have now conducted or are in the process of conducting the first salary-setting conversation, which should focus on your achievements and your responsibilities during the period 01-04-2022 – 30-09-2023. By the end of January at the latest, a second salary-setting conversation must also be carried out, where you will be offered a new salary that you must decide on based on your boss's objective justification based on current salary criteria. The new salary will apply retroactively from 01-10-2023. For those who disagree with their boss about a proposal for a new salary even after a third conversation, the new salary is finally determined in a collective salary negotiation.
It should also be mentioned that in the previous agreement we agreed with the employer that the salary-setting manager and not only representatives from HR, unlike in previous years, would be involved in the collective bargaining. It has now happened to everyone who disagreed with the employer about a new salary and was thus included in the collective bargaining in 2022. Salary-setting managers were then asked to develop their justification for the salary setting. Based on that conversation, Saco-S has put forward arguments for a higher salary increase for all, based on, among other things, the employer's vague justifications in relation to salary criteria, discrepancy between performance and the new salary that was proposed.
In connection with the conclusion of a salary revision, an agreement is drawn up that regulates the salary for the members who refused the employer's proposal for a new salary. This agreement also contains an appendix (see appendix 2 below) with measures that the parties agree should/need to be developed in the upcoming salary revision. Unfortunately, we can state that we have not come as far as we would like in this work. This includes drawing up a joint action plan with the employer to further develop the salary setting process, as well as drawing up individual action plans for the members who have repeatedly disagreed with the employer about new pay. In recent years, there has also been an additional appendix (see appendix 3 below) which contains things that the Saco-S association believes needs to be improved regarding salary setting - but where the employer does not have the same opinion. You can find these appendices (in Swedish), regarding the salary revision 2022, via the link below:
Protocol new salaries 2022 (Appendix 2 and Appendix 3)
The employer has an obligation to annually carry out a salary survey where salary differences between women and men must be in focus. A guiding thought in this work is that unreasonable pay differences between women and men should be discovered and that future pay revisions should remedy it. This time, as a trade union party, we have so far chosen not to sign the said salary survey, because we believe that we should have been involved in the process to a greater degree and had access to the same documents as the employer. The work on the 2023 salary survey mapping is ongoing with a partially different working method. A strengthening of the work has taken place, among other things, through "expert competence" in the form of an investigator from the university management's office. Below you will find the views that the trade unions have sent to the employer (in Swedish) regarding the 2022 salary survey:
Comments on the 2022 salary survey
As support in the ongoing salary audit, we have referred to a link on SULF's website (SULF is the Saco-S union at the university with the most members and is therefore our contact union - from which we get support in union matters) which deals with salary and salary setting, which i.a. contains a couple of videos and other information with tips for salary setting. You can access films and other information via the link below:
https://sulf.se/en/work-salary-and-benefits/salary-and-salary-interview/
During the spring of 2023, member meetings were held about the salary process and salary-setting talks, and we then showed, among other things, a powerpoint presentation that highlights salary and salary setting within Saco-S, both on an overall level and locally within the institution - you can find the link below:
Salary setting talks within Saco-S
To give a background to the salary setting at the university, it is based on a framework agreement for salaries within the state (RALS) signed between Saco-S and the Employers' Agency, which you can reach via the following link (in Swedish):
During the previous year, this agreement was evaluated internally within Saco-S centrally, and discussions regarding the agreement in the future are now ongoing with the Swedish Employment Agency.
The university also has a number of local agreements related to salary setting, as well as to salary and other remuneration. In addition to PhD students and amanuenses, as mentioned above, there is a local agreement on pay for hourly TA staff. In addition, there are a local agreement on OB (inconvenient working hours) compensation for teachers and postdocs. You can reach the local agreements via the link below:
https://lnu.se/en/medarbetare/employed-at-lnu/steering-documents/
For some years now, the salary criteria that exist at the university have partly included criteria that apply to all employees, partly more detailed criteria for teachers and researchers, for technical and administrative staff and for managers. You reach i.a. salary policy and current salary criteria via the link below:
https://lnu.se/en/medarbetare/employed-at-lnu/lon-and-replacements2/lonesatting/
At the last six salary revisions, the Saco-S association has compiled evaluations of the salary setting process based on results from member surveys. The most recent of these evaluations (RALS 2022) contains, on the one hand, comparisons of results from previous salary audits, and on the other hand a final summation of results from questions with open answer options. We plan to carry out an evaluation of RALS 2023 during February-March. You can reach the evaluation (in Swedish) of RALS 2022 via the link below:
Evaluation RALS 2022 (ver. 230118 rev.)
On a national level, SULF has during the previous year carried out an evaluation regarding the salary setting process at colleges and universities. You can reach the report "Salary-setting conversations as a salary-setting model in the higher education sector - evaluation" (in Swedish) via the link below:
To get a picture of the salary situation, 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 questions about salary and salary setting, 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)
Updated: 2023-11-22