Employed PhD candidates fall under a collective labour agreement (collectieve arbeidsovereenkomst, cao), which describes a large part of their rights. A cla is a contract containing agreements the (representatives of) employees have made with the employer. This includes agreements about wages, working hours, allowances, holidays, training, and pension.
The majority of employed PhD candidates falls under one of these three collective labour agreements:
- The cao-NU if you work at one of the 14 dutch universities.
- The cao-UMC's if you work at one of the 8 University Medical Centers.
- The cao-OI if you work at a different research institute, such as the Centrum voor Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) or the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
Be aware that your contract can fall under different conditions than the above. If you want to know your rights, you can consult the four types of PhD candidates (Dutch only), courtesy of the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (UNL).
