We will strengthen our network to ensure the interests of our members are fairly represented. We look forward to working with management to oversee the implementation of the policy.

Thank you for your support and solidarity in signature and beyond! Casual UvA looks forward to furthering the visibility of and action to end casualization.

Some evidence supports that management is going so far as to engage with junior lecturers individually to offer contracts that circumvent a D3 position in order to maintain the same D4 pay grade and scope. This behaviour is opaque and predatory and reproduces exploitative and precarious working conditions.

Casual UvA will not stand by means of ostracisation, deceit, and failure to implement the lecturer policy in good faith. Such deviations will not be met without consequence.

We understand that administrative procedures and a cultural shift require due time and process. That said, such infractions of the stipulated policy are increasingly urgent and necessitate mediation from faculty and central-level management. Casual UvA urges faculty and central-level management to intervene and take more active involvement in implementation: whether that be to furnish resources at the faculty level to guide departments in the transition, to involve outside UFO consultants and experts, take precautions on the level of HR concerning social safety and accountability of the policy application, and ultimately clearly communicate the policy and timeline to their respective junior lecturers.

Though the marking strike is suspended, the spirit of action remains—Casual UvA will continue to monitor the implementation and engagement of the policy actively, necessitating that accountability is taken at every opportunity. We will work with management to implement the full potential of the policy to better academia for ourselves, our colleagues, and our students.

In solidarity,

Casual UvA

We were supported in our efforts by numerous stakeholders, including many of our own students, and worked tirelessly towards a resolution with management. Our actions, like those of Casual Academy and 0.7, are aimed at elevating the issue of casualisation on the national agenda and helping bring about local change.

In our discussions with the CvB, FMG Dean, FNWI Dean, and various department management teams, we lobbied for better contract scope, workload transparency, and professional development opportunities, some of which will take immediate effect with the newly released central HR policy. Casual UvA admires the precedence the CvB is aiming to set with these needed changes. Preceding the CAO negotiations, the policy has the potential to improve working conditions for all teachers, especially those on temporary contracts. The central HR policy neither ends casualisation nor resolves all of our concerns, but it represents a step towards bettering our workplace and combating the negative impacts of precarity and overwork on students and teachers.

Thus, in good faith and a spirit of partnership, we have agreed to suspend the marking strike. Block 5 grades will be released as planned, following the standard turnaround times for final assessments and other graded work in consultation with course coordinators.

As a condition of suspending the strike, Casual UvA will closely monitor developments of the policy at various organisational levels, paying careful attention to how specifics are taken up in different departments. We will strengthen our network to ensure the interests of our members are fairly represented. We look forward to working with management to oversee the implementation of the policy.

We would like to congratulate and commend the incredibly brave population of junior teachers who have been on strike for over eight weeks and have helped bring about this change, as well as the volunteer members who run Casual UvA in their own time. Our gratitude also goes to those who supported us in solidarity, colleagues and students alike, including the ASVA and Autonomous Student Struggle.

Casual UvA is here to stay and evolve into a powerful action group, as has been demonstrated throughout the strike. We look forward to working with management to implement the policy and better education for ourselves, our colleagues, and our students.

In solidarity,

Casual UvA