Salary
Below you will find information about the salary setting process at Linnaeus University. It concerns, among other things, the current and previous salary revision, first for doctoral students/amanuensis followed by the process for other Saco-S-affiliated members. a link to "Saco salary search".
Ongoing work with salary revision for doctoral students and amanuensis
There is a special local collective agreement for doctoral students and assistants. The traade union parties that conclude agreements for doctoral students (Saco-S and OFR/S) reached an agreement with the employer just before the summer on the new doctoral salaries, which were paid (retroactively from January 1, 2024) with the salary in July. You can reach the current agreement via the link below:
Unfortunately, there was a delay in reaching an agreement with the employer regarding 2024 PhD salaries, as we had difficulty getting the employer to offer PhDs salaries on par with the average for other members within Saco-S and OFR/S. In order to hopefully be ready sooner with future salaries for doctoral students, which will apply from the turn of the year on January 1, 2025, we see that negotiations need to begin already during the current autumn.
Ongoing work with salary revision for other Saco-S affiliated members
The salary revision RALS 2023 for other Saco-S-affiliated members has now just been completed as an agreement was signed which regulates the salary for the members who disagreed with the employer's proposal for a new salary. The said agreement also contains an appendix (see appendix 2 below) with measures that the parties agree should/need to be developed in the upcoming salary review. Unfortunately, we can state that we have not come as far as we would like in this work. This includes drawing up a joint action plan with the employer to further develop the salary setting process, as well as drawing up individual action plans for the members who have repeatedly disagreed with the employer about new pay. In recent years, there has also been an additional appendix (see appendix 3 below) which contains things that the Saco-S association believes need to be improved regarding salary setting - but where the employer does not have the same opinion. You can find these appendices, regarding the salary revision 2023 (in Swedish), via the link below:
Protocol new salaries 2023 (appendix 2 and appendix 3)
The salary setting that takes place at the university is based on an agreement between the Saco-S association and the employer, which aims to regulate the salary setting process. Such an agreement was signed between Saco-S and the employer at the end of May. The new agreement is for one year (in Swedish). See link below:
After the vacation and before September 30, salary-setting managers will conduct the first salary-setting talk, which will focus on your achievements and your responsibilities during the period 1 April 2023 – 30 September 2024. By the end of November at the latest, a second salary-setting talk must also be carried out, where you will be offered a new salary which you must decide on based on your boss's factual justification based on current salary criteria. The new salary will apply retroactively from 10/01/2024. For those who disagree with their boss about the proposal for a new salary even after a third conversation, the new salary is finally determined in a collective negotiation.
It should also be mentioned that in accordance with the agreements of recent years, the salary-setting manager participates in the collective bargaining and not only representatives from HR, unlike in previous years. This has now been the case for everyone who disagreed with the employer about a new salary and was thus included in the collective bargaining in 2023. Salary-setting managers were then asked to develop their justification for the salary setting. Based on that conversation, Saco-S has put forward arguments for a higher salary increase for all, based on, among other things, the employer's vague justifications in relation to salary criteria, discrepancy between performance and the new salary that was proposed.
The employer has an obligation to annually carry out a salary survey where salary differences between women and men must be in focus. A guiding thought in this work is that unreasonable pay differences between women and men should be discovered and that future pay revisions should/must remedy it. This time, that survey has taken place with a strengthening of the work, among other things by the fact that "expert competence" has participated in the form of an investigator from the university management's office, which contributed to a more developed way of working. Unfortunately, the survey has been paused, without us as a trade union part having signed the survey. In our opinion, it should be stated more clearly which measures should be carried out before the 2024 salary survey. We have not had that discussion - except that we will look a little deeper at some of the groups. Saco-S would also like to see that a workshop on "equal salaries" is organized in 2024, for those who have an interest in these issues at the university and also includes those who internally have expert knowledge in the field.
As support in the ongoing salary revision, we refer to a link on SULF's website (SULF is the Saco-S union at the university with the most members and is therefore our contact union - from which we get support in union matters) which deals with salaries and salary setting, which i.a. contains a couple of videos and other information with tips for salary setting. You can access films and other information via the link below:
https://sulf.se/en/work-salary-and-benefits/salary-and-salary-interview/
In the middle of October 2024, the Saco-S association had a member meeting about the salary process and salary setting talks. Below is a link to a powerpoint presentation for the 2024 salary, both on an overall level and locally within the university:
Salary setting talks within Saco-S (2024)
To give a background to the salary setting at the university, it is based on a framework agreement for salaries within the state (RALS) signed between Saco-S and the Employers' Authority. The agreement was last revised on 10/01/2024. The substantive changes from previous agreements are extremely limited, but the ambition has been to improve structure and language. You reach the agreement via the following link (in Swedish):
The university also has a number of local agreements related to salary setting, as well as to salary and other remuneration. In addition to PhD students and amanuenses, as mentioned above, there is a local agreement on pay for hourly TA staff. In addition, there is a local agreement on OB compensation for teachers and postdocs. You can reach the local agreements via the link below:
https://lnu.se/en/medarbetare/employed-at-lnu/steering-documents/
For some years now, the salary criteria that exist at the university have partly included criteria that apply to all employees, partly more detailed criteria for teachers and researchers, for technical and administrative staff and for managers. You reach i.a. salary policy and current salary criteria via the link below:
https://lnu.se/en/medarbetare/employed-at-lnu/lon-and-replacements2/lonesatting/
At the last seven salary revisions, the Saco-S association has compiled evaluations of the salary setting process based on results from member surveys. The most recent of these evaluations (RALS 2023) contains comparisons of results from previous salary audits and shorter comments on these, partly a final summation of results from questions with open answer options. You reach the evaluation of RALS 2023 via the link below (in Swedish):
Evaluation RALS 2023 (ver. 240826)
On a national level, SULF has during the previous year carried out an evaluation regarding the salary setting process at colleges and universities. You can reach the report "Salary-setting conversations as a salary-setting model in the higher education sector - evaluation" (in Swedish) via the link below:
To get a picture of the salary situation, as a member of a Saco-S union, you can use "Saco Salary Search", which you can access (in Swedish) via the link below:
https://www.saco.se/karriar/jag-ska-loneforhandla/saco-lonesok/
If you have questions about salary and salary setting, you are welcome to contact someone in the Saco-S association's negotiating delegation for salaries:
Jan Andersson (jan.andersson@lnu.se)
Gunilla Gunnarsson (gunilla.gunnarsson@lnu.se)
Karina Petersson (karina.petersson@lnu.se)
Updated: 2023-11-22