Employment regulations: CAO, IR and pension

CAO-OI

The Collective Labour Agreement Research Institutes (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 2025-2026 is available on the WVOI website and at the bottom of this webpage. The new salary tables can be consulted on the WVOI-website (in Dutch only).

Final agreement on collective labour agreement 2025-2026  On 6 November 2025, the WVOI and employee organisations FNV, CNV Onderwijs and AOb reached a final agreement on a new collective labour agreement for research institutes. The new collective labour agreement runs from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026. Below, we highlight a number of new provisions.

Salary development

• The amounts in the salary scales are structurally increased by 1.9% as of 1 October 2025. As of 1 January 2026, the amounts in the salary scales are structurally increased by 3%. This means that a wage increase of 4.9% has been agreed for the duration of the collective labour agreement. 
• Every employee who is in service on 1 November 2025 will receive a one-off payment of €900.00 gross. This payment will be proportional to the extent of the employment contract and to the number of months that the employee has been in service from 1 January 2025 to 31 October 2025. 

In accordance with the usual system, this increase will be reflected in pensions and benefits. 

Job security 

Adjustment of notice period

The notice period for permanent employment (Article 8.2) is two months for all employees and four months for the employer in all cases. The distinction between employees up to and including scale 12 and those from scale 13 onwards is abolished.

Extension provisions oio

Article 9.3 now more clearly states that for oio’s the extensions apply to the initial employment contract. In addition, a new subparagraph d has been added to paragraph 3, stating that the fixed-term employment contract will be extended by the duration of the illness during the initial employment contract if there is a continuous period of illness of at least eight weeks and, at the time of extension, there is a realistic prospect of recovery within the extended period.

Leave 

Parental leave 

Articles 5.13, 5.14 and 5.15 have been amended to allow for more flexible parental leave arrangements, provided that business operations allow. The rules regarding the accrual of holiday leave during paid parental leave have also been clarified. 

Leave for marriage, registered partnership or cohabitation contract

Special leave with pay has been extended by one day for marriage, registered partnership or cohabitation contract, as well as for attending the marriage or registered partnership of one's own family and the partner's family, in the first and second degree. 

Extension Tailor-made Terms of Employment model (AVOM: ArbeidsVoorwaarden Op Maat

AVOM has been extended with options related to work, offering employees the choice to contribute to sustainability, greening, sustainable employability or work-life balance. For example, the end-of-year bonus has been added to the sources and three new targets have been agreed.

• Object Repayment of student debt in AVOM
  Employees belonging to the unlucky generation as referred to in the DUO student finance loan system (studying in the period 2015-2023) can use up to €1.000,00 gross salary per year to repay their student loan. The employee shall provide the employer with supporting documents of the repayment to DUO. The employer may establish rules for the administrative processing. This objective shall apply from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2030. 
• Object Saving leave for early retirement 
  In the context of sustainable employability and work-life balance, employees can use leave to retire early. Employees can save up to six months' leave for early retirement. Employees can save their extra-statutory holiday hours over a maximum period of ten years and up to a maximum of 1,040 hours (six months)for a full working week. The saving of holiday hours does not commence until the employee has reached a mutual agreement with the employer regarding the saving of holiday hours for this purpose. The leave saved for this purpose may also be claimed after participation in the Generation Plan Scheme. 
• Object Sustainability measures
  The employer may choose to add the objective of sustainability measures within AVOM. The employer shall make agreements with the authorized works council regarding the sources and objectives.

Trade union month

As of 1 January 2026, trade union month will be October. Employees who join one of the employee organisations involved in the OI collective labour agreement in October will receive a net reimbursement of €100.00 from their employer for their first annual membership fee.

(Anniversary) bonus

Article 3.6 of the collective labour agreement stipulates that the bonus for 40 years of service amounts to 100% of the salary, including holiday pay.

Other agreements during the term of the collective agreement

• The parties will conduct an exploratory study into a future-proof job evaluation system for the OI sector.
• The parties want to work towards translating the collective agreement text into accessible language, with the formal collective agreement text remaining in place and legally binding.

IR

The NWO Implementing Regulations (IR) contains agreements on employment conditions, including travel reimbursement and other allowances, which are not regulated in the CAO-OI. In addition, the IR contains schemes such as a complaints procedure or the conduct of an interview between supervisor and employee. The IR applies to both NWO and NWO-I employees and can be downloaded as a pdf at the bottom of this page.

Status of NWO-I/NWO implementing regulations Our current implementing regulations will officially expire on 1 January 2026. Negotiations for the new implementing regulations have now started, but no agreements have yet been reached. The implementing regulations apply to both NWO and NWO-I. At the beginning of 2026, the negotiating delegation of the employers NWO and NWO-I and the negotiating delegation of the Central Works Council of NWO will resume negotiations. These parties aim to reach an agreement in the short term. Until the new implementing regulations are adopted, the current NWO implementing regulations for 2023-2025 will remain fully in effect. This concerns the version that came into effect on 1 September 2024, following interim negotiations. All terms and conditions of employment described in that version of the NWO implementing regulations 2023-2025, such as travel allowances, home working facilities and other agreements, will therefore remain in force until the new implementing regulations are adopted. You can find the document containing the full implementing regulations at the bottom of this page.

Staff interviews scheme (IR 10)

The four different regulations at NWO-D and NWO-I have been harmonised into a new staff interview regulation called The Dialogue.

The new scheme supports a continuous dialogue between supervisor and employee in which the development of the employee and employees contribution to the organisational objectives are central. Manager and employee jointly own their dialogue. The new method abandons the classic assessment with an appraisal score.

Implementation of the new method will start this autumn. Attention will be paid to clear communication and support, including training and information for managers and employees to start working with the new method. The first interviews according to the new methodology are expected to be held in early 2025.

 Whistleblower regulation (IR 14)

The whistleblower regulation was adapted to European regulations and subsequent Dutch legislation in which, among other things, the abuses about which the whistle can be blown were expanded and the legal protection of whistleblowers was improved.

 Height of the compensation amounts included in the IR

The main adjustment concerns the increase in the amounts that can be used in AVOM for a bicycle for commuting. The amounts have been increased from €750 and €1,500 to €1,000 and €2,000. Furthermore, the moving allowance has been increased and the low allowance for travel by private car has been raised from 10 cents to 11 cents.

IR 1

• Article 3 paragraph 1: The low mileage allowance for travel by private transport for commuting has been increased from 10 cents to 11 cents per kilometre. As of 1 January 2025, the ‘high’ mileage allowance goes to the tax maximum allowance amount applicable as of that date .
• Article 6: The amount (gross salary and/or holiday hours) that can be used for the bicycle has been increased from a maximum of €750.00 to €1,000.00 for the employee who has a one-way commuting distance up to and including 7.5 kilometres. For the employee who has a one-way commuting distance of more than 7.5 kilometres, the amount (gross salary and/or holiday hours) has been increased from a maximum of €1,500.00 to €2,000.00.

IR 2

• Article 2 paragraph 7: The low mileage allowance for business travel by private transport has been increased from 10 cents to 11 cents per kilometre.

IR 3

• Article 4 paragraph 2: The amounts for the allowance for transport costs have been increased by 20%.
• The amount for the allowance for redeployment costs for incoming employees has been increased to €2,450.

ABP pension

For information about your ABP pension we refer you to this page on pensions on our website.