Newsletter December -24
After a demanding autumn, a well-deserved Christmas break is soon approaching for our members. Before that, however, we would like to take the opportunity to summarize the work carried out this autumn by the Saco-S association at Linnaeus University.
In the previous newsletter, it was mentioned that the Saco association had its usual annual meeting in early October in the form of a hybrid meeting, where our contact ombudsman Michael Svedemar also participated on site in Kalmar. After the annual meeting negotiations, where, among other things, the annual report was adopted and a new board was elected, a discussion followed on various union issues. You can find contact information for the new board and the annual meeting minutes via the link below.
The autumn of 2024 has been largely characterized by the transformation process that has begun at the university. For TA staff, this mainly concerns the work that is underway with operational analyses to streamline operational support, and for teachers/researchers, it mainly concerns the work that has begun with the educational strategy. In both issues, the Saco-S association has acted.
Regarding the operational analysis, we have, among other things, asked management questions about which areas were not included in the report and why, and why aspects of leadership/managerial support were not included - or were described so sparingly. However, we noted that some shorter wording about it had been added when the report was published. We have also repeatedly pointed out at MBL in connection with managerial appointments that the employer should wait for the work with the business analysis before establishing new managerial positions. Via the link below you can access images from a presentation at a member meeting aimed primarily at TA personnel that the Saco-S association carried out in the form of a webinar on November 26 (in Swedish only).
Presentation on business analysis – TA personnel
The Saco-S association unfortunately sees a risk that situations with a shortage of work may arise, and that preparedness is needed to handle it. This may include analyses of the age structure among employees and looking at the size of staff turnover (which is often higher in situations like this). In addition, we believe that if a shortage of work occurs, it needs to be handled professionally, and processes need to be clear and transparent.
Regarding the educational strategy, the Saco-S association has in various contexts provided views. For example, we have expressed our concern that implementing the educational strategy could contribute to situations of labour shortages. The Saco-S association also believes that it is important that external analyses are carried out and asks questions about the priorities of lifelong learning in relation to the fact that the strategy proposes a reduced number of distance education courses and more campus-based education courses. We have also had views on the distribution of activities between the locations. Initially, the employer stated that the education strategy would not entail any increased workload for teachers, but instead would help to reduce it by having teachers work with slightly fewer courses but with slightly more students in them.
The educational strategy contains two parts, where in the first more general part there were opportunities to submit views in the form of consultation responses, while a second part contained faculty-specific initiatives. Consultation responses from the first part have, however, so far neither been public nor have they influenced the draft of the second part of the education strategy, since it was published before the consultation responses had been submitted. Via the link below you can access the Saco-S association's consultation response to the educational strategy (in Swedish only):
Consultation response - Educational strategy
During the autumn, we have also received information from the employer that the education strategy will entail savings and should be seen as an operational analysis on the academic part of the university, with savings requirements and a risk of situations with a shortage of work.
Overall, we in the Saco-S association feel that both the operational analysis on the TA side and the education strategy have contributed to increased concerns among our members. If you have questions in connection with these two change efforts, you are welcome to contact someone on the board of the Saco-S association.
During the month of October, the Saco-S association held two member meetings in the form of webinars that dealt with salary and salary setting - in Swedish and English respectively. The purpose of these meetings was to provide support for our members in the ongoing salary setting process. Information about salary setting and images from the presentation can be found under the tab “SALARY” on the Saco-S association’s website – which you can reach via the link below:
We have also informed about some upcoming webinars that have been available to members of the Saco-S association during the autumn, arranged by SULF, our contact union at the university.
On a couple of occasions during the autumn, we have also carried out activities on site under the epithet "Coffee with the union" - where it has been possible to meet members of the board of the Saco-S association and raise various union issues. In this context, we are already flagging two upcoming webinarsthat SULF will arrange at a central level during the month of January:
January 15, 2025 at 11:30-13:00: Migration - Are you new in Sweden? (English)
https://sulf.se/kalender/webinar-migration-are-you-new-in-sweden/
January 22, 2025 at 11.30-13.00: Teachers' working hours - a borderless work (Swedish)
https://sulf.se/kalender/webbinarium-lararnas-arbetstid-ett-granslost-arbete/
When it comes to the conditions in higher education, the Saco-S association would like to refer to a recently written report from SULF on the reduction of funding to the sector over time. The report has the epithet "30 years of underfunding - How the system error in resource allocation is lowering higher education" and can be accessed via the link below (in Swedish only).
Regarding the local working hours agreement for teachers, the parties should have jointly carried out training for managers and service planners on the local working hours agreement for teachers during the autumn. Unfortunately, these training courses have not been implemented, as the employer previously wished to revise the said agreement. From the Saco-S association's side, we mainly agree with the employer on a new agreement but are hesitant to proceed with a new agreement because we perceive that the application of the existing agreement has changed for the worse at some institutions, including with regard to administrative time.
The shortcomings we have seen related to the said agreement have mainly concerned three different aspects. Firstly: consultation when drawing up service planning (the local working hours agreement stipulates that planning of annual working hours shall be done in consultation with the teacher when drawing up the service plan and when making any changes to it – which unfortunately often does not happen), secondly: drawing up service plans on a calendar year basis (for 2024, most institutions initially only made a plan for the first half of the year) and thirdly: documentation of service planning (service plans must be documented and followed up and then established service plans must be archived for reference, which has usually not been done after the introduction of Retendo). In a dispute hearing in the spring of 2023, the trade unions agreed with the employer on:
- To ensure in the short term, i.e. from the autumn semester onwards, that service planning is communicated between manager and employee, and to begin work on developing routines for consultation when drawing up service plans as well as when revising service plans during the calendar year. The work of developing the routines shall be done jointly by the parties and be completed by 231031 at the latest. Thereafter, training sessions on routines and interpretations of the working time agreement shall be conducted jointly by all heads of departments and service planners.
- To ensure in the longer term, i.e. within two years, that training as above is a natural element of the management training that is continuously offered.
Regarding the first point above, we have worked in collaboration with the employer to develop and compile a routine for heads of departments and service planners, which you can access via the link below. Unfortunately, as far as we understand, these routines have not yet been implemented (in Swedish only).
Routine for service planning and consultation
Hopefully, these guidelines can contribute to service planning working better and becoming clearer for you as a member. It is worth noting that it is always the head of department who has the main responsibility for your service planning, even if the service plan is usually developed by the person/people who do the service planning at your department.
Just over a year ago, the Saco-S association established working groups within the board in order to better distribute tasks and to be able to gain a better focus in various union-related areas. During the latter part of the autumn, minor adjustments to the working groups have been made and they look as follows:
- Working group salary and salary survey: Karina Petersson (convener), Gunilla Gunnarsson, Sofie Tornhill and Jan Andersson.
- Working group working time agreements for teachers: Eva Pohl (convener), Jan Andersson, Magnus Mårtensson and Karina Petersson
- Working group working time agreements for TA staff: Nina Andersson Junkka (convener), Jan Andersson and Stefan Lindkvist Gómez
- Working group member activities/member recruitment: Gunilla Gunnarsson (convener), Nina Andersson Junkka, Anders Nordborg, Jan Andersson, Magnus Mårtensson and Jonathan Madeland
- Working group: Member support/member matters: Jan Andersson (convener), Eva Pohl and Magnus Mårtensson
During the year, the Saco-S association has cooperated with the safety organization to a greater extent. This applies, among other things, to the work environment and working conditions at two units at the university where the situation has been extra strained for various reasons.
The university has begun work on operational goals for the years 2026-2030 and revised goals for this period will be adopted in 2025. From what we understand, it is intended that goals on sustainability and internationalization will be incorporated into the other goals. Regarding the upcoming goal work, the Saco-S association will, among other things, continue to highlight work environment issues and issues about sustainable working life. This latter type of issue is discussed between the parties at a central level, but at our university, it is so far mainly us within the Saco-S association who have raised such discussions.
The Saco-S association has also pointed out to the management that we believe that the work that several authorities, with the support of the Swedish Employers' Agency, are conducting with trust-based governance and management should also be considered at the university. Instead, our university seems to be managing through increased control, among other things by introducing new management levels in the line, whose mandate is unfortunately often not clearly regulated in delegation arrangements. The Saco-S association has also indirectly acted on the issue through a motion that the SULF local branch submitted to the SULF congress, which was about investigating what forms of governance and management look like in higher education. The motion was mainly approved by the congress.
During the autumn, the Saco-S association, together with other trade union organizations, in addition to consultations with the various faculties and weekly MBL negotiations, has also participated in management recruitment, mainly through interviews with the candidates concerned.
An additional task for the Saco-S association is, as before, to represent individual members in various trade union issues, which has also been done during the autumn. If you would like support in a trade union issue in any context or have questions and concerns, you are always welcome to contact us.
We also gratefully accept suggestions on what Saco-S can/should work on next.
With this, we hope that after responsible and intensive work, we can all enjoy and relax properly during the upcoming holidays.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Wishes from the board of the Saco-S association at Linnaeus University
from
Jan Andersson and Gunilla Gunnarsson (chairman and vice chairman)
Updated: 2024-12-18