The department of interdisciplinary social sciences at Utrecht University seeks a student assistant to code Estonian language collective bargaining agreements for the research project BARWAGE - The importance of collective bargaining for wage setting in the European Union.

The student assistant will work with the project leader and the project’s team of coders on the Estonian case included in the BARWAGE project. The student assistant will:

• help the project leader sample and collect 100 Estonian collective bargaining agreements, including a mapping of the industries covered by the agreements;
• be responsible for the coding of the Estonian collective bargaining agreements within the larger team of coders of the WageIndicator CBA Database;
• help the project leader with desk research and online interviews with negotiators in Estonia;
• help the project leader with the coding of pay scale tables from Estonian, and potentially Dutch CBAs;
• participate in additional project activities.

We are looking for a student assistant with fluency in Estonian and ability to communicate with the broader team in English. You are a student at a Dutch University and have an interest in the substantive topic of the BARWAGE project. You’re detail oriented. Previous experience with the coding or analysis of text data is an asset.

• You have the possibility to work for 0,2 - 0.3 FTE during a period of 6 months
• You will work in a co-operative and dedicated team that combines a focus on work with attention for the people doing the work. As a team, we will guide you in your research tasks and we will adapt or guidance to what works for you.
• You will initially be offered a temporary employment for the duration of 6 months and after a positive assessment of the first 6 months, you will be given an extension of your employment till the end of the project (additionally 12-18 months)
• Your gross salary will be €2,402 per month, based on full-time employment and in accordance with the P-scale of the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities.
• The salary is supplemented with an annual holiday allowance of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 8.3% per year.

And there’s more. We also offer a warm welcome and provide a joint introduction for our new colleagues. As part of this we will facilitate you getting to know the organization and show you around our faculty and university.

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major societal themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Sustainability.

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences is one of the leading faculties in Europe providing research and academic teaching in cultural anthropology, educational sciences, interdisciplinary social science, pedagogical sciences, psychology, and sociology. More than 5,600 students are enrolled in a broad range of undergraduate and graduate programmes. The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences has 850 faculty and staff members, all providing their individual contribution to the training and education of young talent and to the research into and finding solutions for scientific and societal issues.

BARWAGE (2022-2024) investigates the potential of collective bargaining as a tool for ensuring adequate minimum wages in the European Union. It explores the size of four wage-setting arenas: the national level, sector level wage bargaining, enterprise level wage bargaining, and individual wage-setting. BARWAGE applies quantitative and qualitative methods. Using coded data of 900 CBAs from 9 EU countries (AT, BG, CZ, EE, ES, IT, FR, NL, PT), the presence and nature of pay scales in the sectoral and enterprise collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) are analyzed. For CBAs that include pay scales, EUROSTAT microdata are used to estimate the distribution of workers across pay scale tables. When no pay scales are found in CBAs, techniques for text extraction from CBAs are applied and interviews conducted with CBA signatories to identify alternative wage-setting arenas. To deepen the insight into the impact of collective bargaining on wages, national level data will be used to detail the wage arenas in 2 EU countries, one with and one without a statutory minimum wage (Netherlands and Italy). The consortium includes four partners, based in the Netherlands (2x), Italy and Slovakia, jointly with 11 researchers and 2 organization and communication specialists. ETUI in Brussels and the Dutch AWVN act as associate partners. The project lasts 2 years (2022-‘24) and includes 6 work packages. The results will widely be disseminated and discussed in virtual seminars, in 7 reports, and in newsletters and online activities.

More information about BARWAGE:

• Introductory clip (10min)
• Or visit the BARWAGE web page

• Introductory clip (10 min)
• Or visit the WageIndicator website