News from the NWO Central Works Council (Inside NWO-I October 2019)
Works council advises about job classification system and director NWO-I
At the last meeting of the NWO Central Works Council (NWO COR) two subjects were high on the agenda. First of all, the issue as to whether changes within the job classification system had to be submitted to NWO COR. An external expert judged that this should happen in part. In addition, NWO COR advised the executive board representative whether the NWO institutes would benefit from a single director at NWO-I with final responsibility.
Approval request for revision of job classification scheme
As we stated in the last edition of the newsletter, NWO COR together with the executive board representative asked an external expert for advice about the suspected right of consent for the introduction of the job classification system for non-scientific personnel. The expert has now confirmed that, given the implementation, the right of consent was applicable to one aspect. We will shortly also consult with the executive board representative about how we can tackle the adaptation of the job classification system for NWO personnel in the future.
Change in the governance of NWO-I
NWO COR has received a request for advice about a change to the governance at NWO-I. At the heart of the change is the appointment of a single director for NWO-I who bears final responsibility. In the proposal for change of governance this director will formally be the manager of the institute directors and chair of the directors’ consultative meeting. In addition to this, a Director of Operations NWO-I will be appointed. This director will be responsible for managing the NWO-I office with the exception of the Strategic Support Department. This department will fall directly under the new director NWO-I. The director of operations will also take part in the institute managers’ consultative meetings.
In the consultative meeting of 27 August, the executive board representative explained the proposal. Additional questions were posed to the executive board representative to reach this final advice. After the meeting of 22 October, NWO COR expects to be able to issue a final advice.
Start negotiations new Implementing Regulations
On 31 December 2019, the current Implementing Regulations (IR) expire. The executive board representative and NWO COR are responsible for realising a new set of regulations. NWO COR has already received input from the local works councils and partly based on this input it has determined its line. The negotiations will take place in October and November, and we hope to be able to announce the new IR in December. As these regulations concern all NWO colleagues, NWO COR takes these negotiations very seriously. We will therefore devote a lot of attention to these in the coming period.
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