Will staff get a little extra against the cold?

Will staff get a little extra against the cold?

Due to high energy prices, Breda’s BUas University of Applied Sciences is giving staff a little extra. Staff in the lowest salary scales will receive a one-off 370 euro net for full-time appointments. From scale 9 onwards, it is 185 euros. Other universities of applied sciences also have plans to support staff financially.

As yet, there are no national agreements, but according to a spokesperson for the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences, this umbrella organisation ‘is closely following developments regarding purchasing power, inflation and energy prices and is in discussion with employers, trade unions and the government’.

Social Fund

Universities are not as far along. “It is understandable that employees are worried about high inflation,” says a spokesman for universities’ union UNL, but he says there have not yet been any discussions to do anything outside the collective agreement. “It may be that individual universities will respond to this themselves.”

TU Delft is, for now, sticking to a reference on the intranet to general government measures and to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Scienc’s Social Fund (SFOCW, in Dutch), where employees of the ministry and educational and cultural institutions can get help with financial problems under certain conditions. University social workers (intranet) at TU Delft can help. In any case, they are available for help to employees who need financial advice if they find that their functioning or health suffer from money worries. (HOP/Delta)