Offener Brief
Open letter from the secretaries of the University of Würzburg
Press release from Uni-Intern issue 22 of 9 June 2009
Open letter from the secretaries
Secretaries at the University of Würzburg are dissatisfied with their pay and their job title. They want to see the "discrepancy between the actual work performed in university office management and the current pay scale" rectified. These are the words of an open letter sent by the University's Equal Opportunities Officer to politicians and the trade union.
The job description of a secretary in academia has changed fundamentally: Other tasks have been added to the actual secretarial work, such as qualified clerical work, budget and budget planning, fund acquisition and administration. The new tasks also include the preparation of personnel matters as well as counselling and support, for example for students.
"Socially competent all-rounders with differentiated specialised knowledge and well-trained foreign language skills" are now working in the university secretariats. Although the demands have increased, the remuneration has not improved: "The workload is hardly reasonable anymore, especially as the high demands are not adequately assessed and the considerable responsibility is underestimated."
Goal: new grading
Adelgunde Wolpert, the Equal Opportunities Officer responsible for academic support staff at the university, has written an open letter in support of the concerns of secretarial staff. They want to see their work as "administrative assistants in scientific operations" recognised as such, redefined and given a higher classification in the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations on the new pay scale in June.
Signatures collected
In order to emphasise the matter, the letter is accompanied by a list of signatures which, according to Adelgunde Wolpert, has been signed by several thousand members of the university. The letter has been sent to Bavaria's Minister President Horst Seehofer, the Minister of Science, members of the state parliament and the trade union Verdi, among others. Adelgunde Wolpert has also appealed to University President Axel Haase for support.
Similar campaigns are underway at other universities in Bavaria. The initiative came from the Technical University of Munich; it has been joined by the "Netzwerk Sekretariat" at the University of Würzburg. The network currently has around 260 members; Adelgunde Wolpert founded it in 2006.
Feedback from the ranks of politics
So far, more than half of those contacted have sent their responses to the Equal Opportunities Office; however, more are expected due to the summer break.
These responses will be presented at a meeting of the Network Secretariat planned for mid-November. In advance, we can already draw a positive interim conclusion: Support and commitment are evident in all responses.
Ongoing developments
On 4 December 2009, the open letters from the university secretaries were discussed at a meeting with Science Minister Heubisch in Munich and the numerous signature lists were handed over. Mrs Wolpert, Equal Opportunities Officer at the University of Würzburg, also took part in this meeting.
One result of this meeting is the present letter from the Minister of Science to Mr Fahrenschon, Minister of Finance.
Our comment from the local Equal Opportunities Office on the ongoing developments:
"The snail of equality" is moving as if on black ice: very slowly and very carefully. But we are staying tuned and remind you of the obligation to implement EU rights to equal pay and continue to call for the principles of equal pay for work of equal value to be established.
