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AOb, the General Education Union, represents education workers across all education
sectors in the Netherlands, from Early Years through to Higher Education and Research
Institutes. The union has over 87,000 members and is a member of the Federation of Dutch
Trade Unions (FNV). Within the union there are a number of specialist groups and
committees representing particular sectors, for example primary and secondary
education, and also distinctive branches of the NL system, such as members working in
schools based on faith-based groups. AOb has a specific group formed of younger
members, known as the Green Wave. The different education sectors are represented
within the union by Sector Boards, with each Board is linked to its relevant Assembly.
The industrial relations framework is well established with collective agreements
enforceable through law. The system is often characterised as one that values
collaboration between stakeholders and the union is well positioned within this framework
and involved in co-partnership working. However, in practice there can be considerable
tensions, and the union and its members face many challenges. Some of these issues are
exacerbated by a school system that has several centralising elements (including
collective bargaining over pay and working hours), but which also depends on very high
levels of decentralisation. For example, schools are given a ‘lump sum’ budget and have
complete autonomy on how to allocate resources. This can lead to considerable variation
at the school level, including in relation to issues that are nationally negotiated. For
example, working hours are the outcome of national negotiations, but local decision
making can have a considerable impact on actual workloads experienced by teachers in
different schools.
The political context has been framed by various coalition governments, but a constant
that has been consistent across all governments has been a commitment to austerity
based economics and attacks on public spending. Against this background the union has
secured some significant successes – including a 10% pay rise in the period after Covid-19
and the closing of the deeply divisive pay gap that existed between primary and secondary
teachers. However, the central issue for teachers is less about pay, and more about
workload. One union official made the following observation:
For the first time in years, for our members, pay is not the main issue. Inflation is rising but
we have a 5% pay rise this year, and won 10% after Covid. The biggest problem is workload – workload, workload, workload and workload! The contact hours in secondary schools are
very high – and even higher in primary schools.
These problems inevitably impact the labour market and contribute directly to the
shortages of teachers being experienced in the Netherlands. This state of affairs should
arguably favour the union by increasing union members’ labour market power, but
ironically it also causes problems. Rather than contributing to union action, teacher
shortages make it easier for a teacher who faces a problem in their school to simply move
schools – thereby individualising the solution rather than collectivising it. When this
happens the workload problem moves around schools, rather than being tackled
systematically.