Employment regulations: CAO, IR and pension

News of 23 February 2023: agreement on new implementation regulations 2023-2025 In recent months, the Central Works Council’s NWO (COR NWO) negotiating delegates and the employers NWO and NWO-I have been working hard to reach agreement on new implementation regulations (IR). The key subjects were sustainability, inflation, and diversity and inclusivity. The final version of the new implementation regulations were adopted during the formal consultation meeting of the Director with the COR NWO on 21 February 2023. The term of the new IR runs from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2025 inclusive, with a reassessment of the allowance amounts, amongst other things, in 2024. See the Implementing Regulations section below, for the most important changes.

CAO

The collective labour agreement runs from 1 January 2022 to 30 June 2023 inclusive. The most important arrangements made concern salaries and the extension of paid parental leave.

Salaries

Salaries will increase by 4 percent with effect from 1 August 2022. In addition, every employee employed on 1 August 2022 will receive a one-off payment of 1,050 euros before tax, with this payment being calculated according to the size of the contract and the number of months for which the employee was employed in the period from 1 January to 31 July 2022.
Salaries will increase by 2 percent on 1 January 2023.

Extension of paid parental leave

As of 1 August 2022, all working parents are entitled to nine weeks of paid parental leave under the new Paid Parental Leave Act (Wbo). This Act states that every working parent may take nine weeks of paid parental leave during the child's first year of life, at 70 percent of the daily salary paid by the Employee Insurance Agency (UWV). The Collective Labour Agreement Research Institutions already included a scheme for paid parental leave. This scheme will be adjusted based on the new Act. As of 1 August, employees may take thirteen weeks of paid parental leave at 55 percent of their salary, provided the leave is taken before the child's fourth birthday. This rate will be increased to 70 percent if these weeks are taken in the first year of the child's life. After the child's first birthday, remaining hours from the thirteen paid weeks may still be taken at 55 percent of the salary, provided the hours are taken before the fourth birthday.

Read the text of the collective labour agreement here.

CAO-OI

The Collective Labour Agreement Research Institutions (CAO-OI) contains agreements about employment conditions, including salary and leave days, which must be taken into consideration in the individual employment agreement. The CAO-OI 2022-2023 (English version) is available at the bottom of this webpage and on the WVOI website. 

Implementation Regulations

The most important changes to the implementation regulations since 1 January 2023 are as follows:

 IR 1 - Commuting expenses

Allowance for use of own transport:

• From 1 March 2023, the ‘low’ kilometre allowance for travel using own transport increases from €0.09 to €0.10 per kilometre, up to a monthly maximum of €90.00.
• The ‘high’ kilometre allowance increases from €0.19 to €0.21 per kilometre, up to a monthly maximum of €188.00.
• From 1 January 2024, the ‘high’ kilometre allowance increases from €0.21 to €0.23 per kilometre, up to a monthly maximum of €206.00.
• Employees with site-specific work are more likely to be eligible for this 'high' kilometre allowance.

Public transport allowance:

• NWO continues to reimburse the commuting costs for public transport. In addition, from 1 March 2023, an employee using public transport for work in accordance with the conditions of the NS-Business Card can also make use of parking for own bicycle or car at the station en route from home to the departure point, and a public transport bicycle and/or e-scooter en route from the destination station to the workplace.

IR 2 – Domestic and foreign business trips

• Both the increase in the kilometre allowance from 1 March 2023 from €0.09 to €0.10 and the expansion of the allowance for parking and use of public transport bicycle and e-scooter in accordance with the conditions of the NS-Business Card also apply to business trips.
• In support of NWO’s sustainability goals, it was also agreed that flights would only be taken when attendance abroad is deemed essential.

IR 6 - Homeworking facilities.

The homeworking facilities scheme is included in the IR set. From 1 March 2023, the homeworking allowance increases from €2.00 to €3.05 per homeworking day.

IR 8 – Interns and holiday workers

The internship allowance will be equalized and is set at €400.00 per month for all education levels. The prevailing regulation regarding the WO trainee remains the same: The WO trainee is not entitled to a traineeship fee unless the traineeship fits in with the policy of the organizational unit. In that case the allowance will be a maximum of €400.00 per month.

IR 13 - Regulation of undesirable behaviour

The regulation of undesirable behaviour is tightened and expanded.

Bereavement protocol

Arising from the CLA arrangements for implementing a bereavement protocol, a guideline has been agreed and included in the IR.

IR 5 and IR 7

Other allowances that have been increased are the emergency response team allowances (IR 5) and the moving costs allowance (IR 7).

The full text of the IR will be made available as soon as possible.

ABP pension

All NWO-I employees are in principle insured with the General Civil Pension Fund (ABP in Dutch) for both old-age pension, survivor's pension, and disability. Some NWO-I employees who are funded by a European grant are not insured with the ABP if the ABP is excluded by the grantor. To be sure if you are insured by the ABP, check your contract agreement.

You can find elaborate but clear information on the ABP website. This information is only available in Dutch.

Via MijnABP.nl you can arrange your pension matters online. For example, you can plan your pension or change your preferences. To help participants use MijnABP, a webpage is available with short instructional videos. These videos focus on the following subjects: retirement, survivor's pension, partner's pension, and digital post. The videos are only available in Dutch and can be found on the website of ABP. In the annex, you will also find a leaflet about building up your pension via the ABP.

Your personnel officer or employees from the P&O Department of NWO-I will be happy to inform you or answer your questions (also in English). You may not reproduce the employment conditions without prior written permission of NWO-I.