Netherlands - New agreement for higher vocational education - November 30, 2025

After five rounds of negotiations and numerous discussions between the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences and the unions, a positive outcome has been reached for employees. The agreement includes not only real improvements in purchasing power, but also agreements on social safety, diversity, and inclusion. For a one-year collective agreement, the unions agreed to a 5% wage increase effective 1 January 2026. In December 2025, all employees will also receive a one-off payment of €700 gross, depending on their working hours. Furthermore, the salary structure will be adjusted to create more balance across the salary scales, and the minimum and maximum wages for the lower scales will be increased.

Read on: in Dutch and English…

For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.