News from the Central Works Council (Inside NWO-I October 2020)
The NWO Central Works Council (COR NWO) is pleased that Prof. Marcel Levi will be the new President of NWO with effect from 1 April 2021. NWO COR had the opportunity to meet him even before his formal appointment. COR NWO also talked with the Executive Board representative about determining the number of collective closure days for 2021 to 2023 within NWO-I. It was decided that both the institutes and the NWO-I office will determine for themselves which collective closure days they choose.
New NWO President
As you have all been able to read, Prof. Marcel Levi will be the new President of NWO with effect from 1 April 2021. A delegation from NWO COR had an informal meeting with Marcel Levi even before he was appointed by the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Ingrid Van Engelshoven. COR NWO is pleased that with Marcel Levi a president has been appointed who can strengthen the link between fundamental, experimental and applied research. We therefore wish Marcel Levi both a successful and enjoyable tenure as President of NWO.
No collective closure days determined
At the end of September, COR NWO received a request for approval to determine the collective closure days for the period 2021 to 2023. The Collective Labour Agreement Research Institutions (Cao-OI) states that each year, the employer, with the approval of the (central) works council can determine at most five collective closure days for the organisation. COR NWO discussed the request and obtained input from the works councils of all institutes. This revealed that determining collective closure days would leave too little room to respond to local circumstances. In consultation with the Executive Board representative, it has now been decided that the collective closure days will be determined at the local level. Therefore both the NWO Institutes and the NWO-I office can now decide for themselves which mandatory collective closure days they want for 2021 up to and including 2023, discuss these with the local works councils and subsequently fix the dates. Employees of the university workgroups (BUW) will observe the collective closure days agreed by their own university.
Newsletter Inside NWO-I, October 2020