Damages for breach of salary agreement
During the last salary review, it was brought to our attention that in a unit with around 20 members, the employer had given all members the same 4% salary increase, which was communicated by email before the salary-setting appraisal took place. According to our collective agreement, all members are entitled to an individual salary based on performance. In addition, salary increases must be justified by the salary-setting manager in a salary-setting appraisal. In this case the current agreement was violated and SULF is therefore awarded SEK 37,500 in damages to be paid by the employer.
Saco-S has negotiated with the employer at both local and central level in a legal dispute under the local bargaining system. This local collective agreement regulates how the salary review will be carried out for our approximately 5,000 members at Lund University. Saco-S at Lund University signs such a collective agreement before each salary review and it is based on RALS 2010-T, which is the central permanent agreement for salary review of Saco-S members throughout the state government sector.
Individual salary setting can be a challenge, but Lund University has chosen to implement it with the support of the central agreement. They wanted "salary setting to contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the organisation and to the efficient and rational management of the organisation".
In addition, it is stated that each Saco-S member's "salary shall be determined on objective grounds such as responsibility, the difficulty of the job assignments and other requirements associated with the job assignments, as well as the employee's skills and results in relation to the objectives of the organisation."
To achieve these organisational values and to "recruit, motivate, develop and retain employees", the agreement states that salary should be individual and differentiated. It is the employer's responsibility to set saleries, but for it to be legitimate, the process must be good and comply with the current agreement.
The local negotiations revealed that the employer considered the salary-setting process to be a challenge for the collegial leadership. In the minutes, the employer states "that there are challenges for managers, and in particular collegially elected managers, to fully take the employer role required for individual and differentiated salary setting".
Saco-S at Lund University believes that collegial governance is the guarantor of quality throughout the organisation, whether it has to do with the quality of education, the direction of research or the direction of staff policy.
In the minutes from the central negotiation, we "agree that the employer's responsibility linked to salary formation and salary setting is clear". Furthermore, the parties agree that the employer shall "create the conditions necessary for collegially elected managers to manage and enable the commitments arising from Section 5 of RALS 2010-T so as not to undermine the value and uniqueness of the central agreement".
Exactly what this will mean for local management is currently unclear, but Saco-S expects the employer to follow the process of individual salary setting as long as we are bound by this agreement. Saco-S at Lund University will send out a survey to all members to investigate how the last two salary reviews worked, which is expected to provide answers on how our members experienced the salary- setting processes.
Adam Brenthel
Chairman Saco-S Council Board at Lund University
Updated: 2024-04-18