Solidarity and reliability for our university
You have the choice!
VOTE FOR LIST 1: Mitbestimmen! A joint list from ver.di, GEW, Mittelbauinitiative, ProSignal and Friends
You can cast your vote in person at any of the two polling stations:
18. Juni 2024 | 09:00 - 15:00 Uhr
Campus Wechloy (ring level, building W3)
19. Juni 2024 | 09:00 - 15:00 Uhr
Campus Haarentor (BIS-Saal)
Postal voting is still possible if you contact the election council and collect the forms personally https://uol.de/pr-wahl.
Contact LISTE 1
Solidarity and reliability for our university
The further development of our university into a place where research, teaching and learning flourish requires the cooperation and support from all employees! We are convinced that the interests of all our colleagues who carry out administrative and technical tasks, research, teaching, knowledge transfer and continuing education on a daily basis have to be recognised. Upholding our co-determination rights means making better decisions at all levels through a greater employee participation.
The University can be an attractive employer only when it offers secure jobs. That means, we need permanent positions for permanent tasks, a low tolerance towards fixed-term contracts and an elimination of the work intensification. Improving working conditions also means organising career transitions, professional development, and promotion opportunities. The strengthening of personal development and planning should make reliable prospects standard in all areas of the University!
In order to work well together, we need more equality and inclusion, a good work-life balance, a high level of job satisfaction and a respectful interaction with one another!
ATTRACTIVE PERSONNEL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
... through more opportunities for advancement, less unwanted part-time work in all areas and a fair pay classification
More Opportunities for Advancement
If you want to move up in the public sector, you need appropriate qualifications for more senior positions. List 1 Mitbestimmen! is committed to ensuring that existing staff are qualified and retained in the long term with the prospect of higher-value jobs. In the administration, the administrative training courses 1 and 2 are still a bottleneck, especially for women.1 On the other hand, the possibility of acquiring required degrees while working in the IT sector (with the costs covered and a partial leave of absence) would make the University a much more attractive employer.
Fair Pay Classification for New Employees, Contract Extensions and Increases in Working Hours
Should List 1 Mitbestimmen! be represented on the future Staff Council, our members will examine with great care all procedures regarding recruitment and pay classification. The Staff Council monitors all new appointments, contract extensions and increases in working hours, it can pass a resolution on such procedures and even refuse to approve them under certain circumstances.
Our aim is for trained Staff Council members to deal with each procedure individually and thoroughly so that transparency and fairness towards each applicant (e.g. when recognising previous experience) and potential competitors (selection of the best) is ultimately maintained in the entire recruitment process.
Better Pay Classifications for More Senior Tasks
Also here, the Staff Council acts as an intermediary between employees and the University. The basis is an up-to-date and correct job description. To this aim, it is often necessary to also involve supervisors. Good and sensitive mediation work by the Staff Council is required to achieve success. Unfortunately, these procedures on the part of the Division 1 (Personnel/Organisation) often take a very long time and exhaust the employees applying.
To be able to carry out the above-mentioned work better in accordance with the NPersVG and in the interests of the employees, the Staff Council of the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg demands:
- transparency for new recruitments – candidates should already be informed about the pay classification during the job interviews
- every employee should be in possession of an up-to-date and correct job description, ideally supported by regular annual appraisals
- prompt processing of application for a better pay classification
- implementation of a framework for assignment of pay classifications based on relevant experience
- It is extremely important to have a strong Staff Council that demands compliance with the paragraphs of the NPersVG in the interest of the employees.
It is extremely important to have a strong Staff Council that demands compliance with the paragraphs of the NPersVG in the interest of the employees.
Unwanted Part-Time Work
Many employees at our university are currently working part-time involuntarily.
There are many reasons for working part-time, e.g. full-time employees intentionally reduce their working hours for parental leave, caring for relatives, children, etc., thus also creating new part-time substitute positions. Organisational units at the University may identify new tasks and create corresponding part-time positions.
Our colleagues in the mid-level academic positions (postdocs, assistants, lecturers) are especially affected by the unwanted part-time contracts. Due to third-party funding or budget allocations in the faculties, there are often only part-time positions available. Mid-level academic staff often have no prospect of a full-time position. In the best-case scenario, there are opportunities to increase the number of hours due to reductions by other colleagues.
Part-time employment has a number of negative effects for non-academic (technical and administrative) staff and for mid-level academic staff: a higher workload than the contractually agreed number of working hours, committee work, interest groups and further education often do not fit into the short working day. Regular participation in meetings outside of part-time working hours is also often not possible, which reduces visibility within the group or the organisational unit, thus also possibly reducing opportunities for promotion.
To counteract this aspect, we are calling for an internal pool of personnel and substitutes. The aim here is to close gaps and reduce the workload in different departments. Furthermore, those already employed at the University should be given the opportunity to gain further qualifications in a wide variety of formats. Colleagues wishing to increase the scope of their employment have several legal options to submit this request in writing to the HR department. If many of us do this, there is a good chance that suitable tools and measures for modern personnel development will be introduced.
1. At the same time, we are calling for the rigid rules in the administrative sector (requirement for administrative training courses 1 and 2) to be changed across the country in order to find suitable staff for these tasks at all and to be able to award them salary classes above E5 or E6.
A GOOD WORKING CULTURE
… by reducing situations of work overload, respectful management styles and constructive conflict management
In more and more areas of the University, employees are overloaded. The main reasons for this are vacancies, increased workload with no increase in personnel and an increased sickness rate, which in turn also leads to an overload for substitutes.
It is a basic rule in companies not to utilise staff to 100% capacity to have a buffer for illness, holidays or occasional peaks in workload. In such a way, overwork, which also leads to further absences due to sick leaves, may be avoided.
The Staff Council is committed to ensuring that the high number of students and projects is supported by an appropriate increase in staff in all areas. In addition to an attractive pay classification, this also includes more full-time positions, thus positioning the University as an attractive employer on the market. Employees must not only be recruited, but also retained! The (too) frequent training of new colleagues is a task that often has to be done “on the side”. This also typically leads to overload situations.
A SECURED LINK BETWEEN TEACHING AND RESEARCH
... through more permanent academic positions
We are committed to ensuring that employees can pursue both their academic work and teaching with long-term security. This includes more permanent positions as well as positions where the teaching workload does not make it impossible to carry out one’s own research. Instructors for special assignments (LfbA, Lehrbeauftragte für besondere Aufgaben) – as defined in the Higher Education Act of Lower Saxony, NHG – should only be used for teaching of practical skills (e.g. music, art, sport, etc.), but not – as is unfortunately the case – for financial reasons for tasks that should actually be carried out by academic staff.
Furthermore, there must be more permanent positions to enable employees not only to gain academic (further) qualifications, but also to have a solid career planning. It must also be in the interest of the University as an employer to be able to reliably ensure its teaching programmes. Experience also shows there is no risk in making project positions permanent, as they reliably ensure a steady inflow of new projects and corresponding funding.
A FAMILY-FRIENDY UNIVERSITY
... through care-appropriate working-time models and family-friendly scheduling of meetings
As stated on its homepage, the University of Oldenburg has committed itself to create family-friendly working and studying conditions.
List 1 Mitbestimmen! supports further utilisation of possibilities of mobile working in order to enhance family friendliness. So far, the areas in which mobile working has been authorised have been rigidly defined. There are areas of work in which mobile working is completely refused, but even in these areas, there are family members who need to be looked after or cared for. With a little creativity and willingness of supervisors and the administration, more could be made possible.
We are also advocating for committee meetings and events to be planned at more family-friendly times. Especially for colleagues working part-time, “fragmented” working days are a challenge and often incompatible with their family’s needs and requirements.
A sensible and practised family-friendly approach is an important factor for a high level of satisfaction in the workspace. Together with a harmonious family life, it gives the good feeling of fulfilling the family and the job without becoming overwhelmed or falling ill.
A MODERN DIGITALISATION
... with data protection, information security, personal rights and the protection of physical and mental health
The term “digitalisation” has been on everyone’s lips even before the Covid-19 pandemic, but it is often unclear what it actually means in relation to our work at the University. Basically, it is about transforming workflows and processes from analogue to digital media in order to generate faster (better?) and broader availability.
We as List 1 Mitbestimmen! are very much in favour of digitalisation, as it can – provided certain things are considered – lead to a simplification of work processes and thus ease the burden on employees. However, the personal rights of employees must be protected, and appropriate regulations must be put in place when introducing new tools. It is also important to ensure that the responsibility for data protection and information security, including corresponding liability issues, e.g. in the case of teleworking, is not shifted to the employees.
As in other areas, the same applies here: not everything that is feasible is also appropriate. The rights of employees should always be safeguarded. There should be no “transparent employees”, and it is crucial to ensure that shifting more and more work in the digital world does not lead to employee isolation, as this can have significant impacts on mental health. Additionally, aspects of physical health must be considered – especially in mobile work, there is a risk of postural damage due to poor ergonomic setup of workspaces.
A HIGH LEVEL OF JOB SATISFACTION
... through cohesive activities, a sense of identification with the tasks and the participation in the outcome.
List 1 Mitbestimmen! is committed to the sustainable and long-term organisation of working conditions in all areas of the University so that employees can experience their work as good and meaningful. Because the preferences and dislikes of employees are as diverse as their respective work contexts, the future Staff Council must be composed of colleagues from as many University’s areas as possible. We represent all groups: from creative professions to those engaged in scientific or teaching activities, to employees in technical and administrative roles. Everyone can find the appropriate expertise with us.
It is fundamentally important to List 1 Mitbestimmen! that the University not only adorns itself with labels such as “family friendliness”, “diversity”, “anti-racism” and “internationalisation”, but that it also implements these attitudes in all specific working areas and conditions. After all, good and meaningful working conditions are not the results of statements or of a claim that working at a university as the highest educational institution is a privilege. Instead, concrete measures aimed at increasing the attractiveness of jobs at the University have to be implemented. These include permanent employment contracts, living wages, preservation of physical and mental health, personnel management (and not just personnel administration), further education and promotion opportunities, etc.
“Permanent positions for permanent tasks” is our key demand. Put an end to the auxiliary constructs of a “series of fixed-term contracts”. Consequently, this means not more third-party projects, but fewer. The University must use all possibilities to create more permanent positions. This also includes that supervisors develop long-term perspectives with employees to meet the needs of all parties involved (keyword: personnel planning and development).
