Activités

AOb, the General Education Union, represents education workers across all education sectors in the Netherlands, from Early Years through to Higher Education and Research Institutes. The union has over 87,000 members and is a member of the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions (FNV). Within the union there are a number of specialist groups and committees representing particular sectors, for example primary and secondary education, and also distinctive branches of the NL system, such as members working in schools based on faith-based groups. AOb has a specific group formed of younger members, known as the Green Wave. The different education sectors are represented within the union by Sector Boards, with each Board is linked to its relevant Assembly. The industrial relations framework is well established with collective agreements enforceable through law. The system is often characterised as one that values collaboration between stakeholders and the union is well positioned within this framework and involved in co-partnership working. However, in practice there can be considerable tensions, and the union and its members face many challenges. Some of these issues are exacerbated by a school system that has several centralising elements (including collective bargaining over pay and working hours), but which also depends on very high levels of decentralisation. For example, schools are given a ‘lump sum’ budget and have complete autonomy on how to allocate resources. This can lead to considerable variation at the school level, including in relation to issues that are nationally negotiated. For example, working hours are the outcome of national negotiations, but local decision making can have a considerable impact on actual workloads experienced by teachers in different schools. The political context has been framed by various coalition governments, but a constant that has been consistent across all governments has been a commitment to austerity based economics and attacks on public spending. Against this background the union has secured some significant successes – including a 10% pay rise in the period after Covid-19 and the closing of the deeply divisive pay gap that existed between primary and secondary teachers. However, the central issue for teachers is less about pay, and more about workload. One union official made the following observation: For the first time in years, for our members, pay is not the main issue. Inflation is rising but we have a 5% pay rise this year, and won 10% after Covid. The biggest problem is workload – workload, workload, workload and workload! The contact hours in secondary schools are very high – and even higher in primary schools. These problems inevitably impact the labour market and contribute directly to the shortages of teachers being experienced in the Netherlands. This state of affairs should arguably favour the union by increasing union members’ labour market power, but ironically it also causes problems. Rather than contributing to union action, teacher shortages make it easier for a teacher who faces a problem in their school to simply move schools – thereby individualising the solution rather than collectivising it. When this happens the workload problem moves around schools, rather than being tackled systematically.