Wage levels should reflect members' expertise, responsibilities and efforts. This is a prerequisite if the sector is to recruit and retain the best qualified, motivated and talented young individuals, who will contribute to the increased level of knowledge production on which society depends.

The absence of wage hikes for NAR's members will upset the very foundation for acquiring new knowledge and the quality of higher education, and thus have far-reaching consequences for society-at-large.

Work must be targeted to rally support for acknowledgement of this fact in the public opinion as well as among politicians. A successful wage policy is contingent on a proactive media policy that also helps provide information and motivates members to engage actively in bargaining work at the local level.

Goals:

• All NAR's member groups are to be ensured a significant rise in real wages. The wage level should be raised considerably and be competitive with comparable positions in society-at-large, enabling the institutions to compete at both the national and international levels when recruiting and retaining the best qualified individuals.
• Wages and working conditions should be good enough to recruit the best qualified and motivated graduates to take up careers in research, and good enough to recruit extremely well-qualified scientists to return to researcher positions.
• The wage gap between NAR's member groups and comparable groups in the public sector should be closed.
• To reduce the wage gap between the public and the private sector, the wage growth in research and higher education must outpace the wage growth for comparable groups in the private sector for a period of time.
• Alternatives to the instruments that exist in the current bargaining and negotiating system should be drawn up and implemented.
  

<< Back