As a public-sector employee, your union representative generally negotiates on your behalf, unless you hold a position that entitles you to conduct your own negotiations.

If the union to which you belong does not have a local union representative at Aalborg University, the union will negotiate on your behalf.

Your classification under the collective bargaining agreement determines which union is authorized to negotiate on your behalf. Therefore, you always have either a local union representative or a union representing you, regardless of whether you are a member or not.

Only employees who are self-negotiators may negotiate their own wages. Otherwise, the union representative must conduct the negotiations.

If an employee is not an self-negotiator but also does not have a union representative, the negotiations must be conducted by the union.

An employee is a self-negotiator if they are employed under a collective bargaining agreement that grants them the right to negotiate or if they are employed in a position such as:

• Special Consultant
• Senior Consultant 
• Salary-grade position (for example, executive position, professorship)

If you do not wish to negotiate on your own behalf despite being employed in one of the positions listed above, you have the option of delegating the annual salary negotiations to a union representative authorized to negotiate. If you wish to do so, you must complete the form “Delegation/Revocation of salary negotiation” and submit it to HR Digitalization.

If you have already delegated your negotiation rights but wish to revoke that delegation, you must also complete the form.

If you are unsure who your union representative is, you can access this list of registered union representatives (Danish), which can be found in the AAU Handbook.

In cases where there is no local union representative, the union will represent you in salary negotiations. These are also listed there.

Your classification under the collective bargaining agreement determines which union is authorized to negotiate on your behalf. Therefore, you always have either a local union representative or a union representing you, regardless of whether you are a member or not.

If you are affiliated with one of the unions for academics that has established a free choice of union, you may apply for membership in a union other than the one specified in the collective bargaining agreement for state-employed academics. You can read more about the free choice of union on the page “Notification of Free Choice of Union (Danish)”

The principal’s delegation instructions assign management responsibilities in connection with salary negotiations:

• Deans (Level 2) approve salary negotiations for professors and associate professors/senior researchers in the promotion track to professor. In some cases, the deans will also conduct the negotiations themselves.
• Department Heads (Level 3) negotiate and approve salary negotiations for the following academic staff:
  
  • Ph.D. fellows and tenured positions, excluding professors and associate professors/senior researchers in the promotion track to professor: Ph.D. fellows, assistant professors/researchers, and associate professors/senior researchers.
  • Other general positions: Research Assistant, Assistant Professor/Lecturer, Postdoctoral Fellow, and Senior Advisor.
  • Clinical positions: Clinical Assistant, Clinical Instructor, Clinical Assistant Professor, Clinical Associate Professor, and Clinical Professor.
  • Other positions that may be applicable within specific fields: Instructor in diploma and export engineering programs (Assistant Professor / Associate Professor, Engineering Professor, Amanuensis); Instructor in Social Theory and Methodology in the social work program at Aalborg University.
• Heads of Department and Dean’s office secretariats (Level 4) may negotiate and approve salary agreements for technical and administrative staff. In cases where this authority has been delegated to them, responsibility will lie with the Department Head or Dean. 
• Deputy Directors in Shared Services (Level 3) conduct and approve salary negotiations for technical and administrative staff.
  Deputy Directors may delegate the negotiations to the Area Managers (Level 4) within the relevant area.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask your immediate supervisor or union representative for advice. 

The annual salary negotiations cover all employees at Aalborg University, with the exception of the following:

• Ph.D. SU scholarship holders 
• Clinical Professor, Associate Professor, Lecturer, and Assistant Professor
• Students 
• D-TAP Positions (Student Employees)
• D-VIP positions (such as Adjunct Lecturers and Teaching Assistants)
• Managers (leaders at delegation levels 1-3, as specified in the rector’s delegation instructions) 

However, some of these employee groups are entitled to salary negotiations under their collective bargaining agreements and may therefore request them; as a result, their cases must be handled outside the annual salary negotiation process, since they are not included in the salary negotiation framework. 

Of the employee groups listed, for example, clinical lecturers, clinical assistants, students, adjunct lecturers, and teaching assistants have the right to request a salary negotiation on their own initiative.

An employee’s classification under the collective bargaining agreement determines which union has the right to negotiate on their behalf - regardless of whether they are a member or not. 

As a union representative, you can find an overview of which employees you represent in the annual wage negotiations in the salary negotiation solution (LFL), where you can also find their master data and salary information. 

If you notice that an employee is missing or that an employee is listed whom you do not believe you represent, please contact HR Digitalization at HR-data@adm.aau.dk.

There are three different types of pay raises.

1. Bonus

Bonuses are typically awarded as compensation for a specific, exceptional, and time-limited effort. 

2. Qualification Supplement

A qualification supplement is a supplement that may be granted for personal or professional competencies. 

3. Job Type-Specific

a. Local Wage Agreement Levels (VIP)

A local wage agreement level is a supplement that can be awarded for personal or professional competencies, and employees can advance through the levels.

You can find the current local wage agreements in the AAU Handbook. 

b. Reclassification/Pay Grade Change (TAP)

Academic TAP employees may negotiate a reclassification to either senior consultant or chief consultant.

Other TAP employees who do not already advance through pay grades based on seniority may negotiate a move to a higher pay group if this is an option under the collective bargaining agreement under which they are employed.

Read more about this on the TAP Reclassification page.

If you have any further questions regarding the above, please contact your local union representative or reach out to the union that represents you in the negotiations.

No. During the annual salary negotiation, only salary can be discussed.

If you want to negotiate other matters, such as reducing your hours, that must be done at a separate time.

The Executive Board has decided that it wishes to coordinate the financial framework for salary negotiations across AAU and will therefore set the financial framework for both TAP and VIP prior to the annual salary negotiations. 

For the 2026 annual salary negotiations, the Executive Board has decided to set the financial framework at 1% of the calculated total payroll for both VIP and TAP. The salary improvements will be distributed equally between permanent supplements and bonuses, though with some flexibility allowed.

Supplements and bonuses that exceed the monetary limits must be approved by the Rector or the University Director prior to the negotiations. This applies to both new hires and other salary negotiations.

You can read more about the monetary limits and the procedure on the HR website.

Rector's Approval (Danish)

For a number of years, the audit team has been reviewing the rationale for the bonuses that employees receive, either in connection with annual salary negotiations or on an ongoing basis.

The audit will periodically conduct spot checks to ensure that the necessary conditions are met. Since the audit’s assessment is based on the written justification for the bonus, it is important that this justification be comprehensive.

We recommend using our AI assistant to help you draft a comprehensive and audit-proof justification:

AI assistant for bonus justifications

The justification for a bonus must answer the following questions: 

1. What is the special effort?
2. Why is this considered a special effort?
3. Why does this special effort go beyond what is generally expected of an employee in the same position?
4. When did this special effort take place? 

The motivation for your proposal for a salary improvement must be based on results achieved or qualifications obtained over the past year.

You can contact your union representative or the union for guidance regarding your proposal and the motivation for it.  

If you wish to include images or other materials with your motivation, simply attach them to the email in which you submit your proposal.

VIP

As a VIP employee, you can find inspiration for your motivation in the following:

1. Publications (information about your publications)
2. Grants (information about the grants you have applied for and/or received)
3. Education (information about your specific initiatives related to development, educational activities, and tuition fees)
4. Innovation (information about your relevant responsibilities related to startups, commercialization, patents, and entrepreneurial ventures)
5. Public Sector Services (information about your responsibilities and services related to the public sector, as well as your initiatives to improve and expand public sector services at the university)
6. University Administration (information about your administrative duties and contributions to councils, boards, committees, management, coordination, and other university-wide activities)
7. Other Knowledge Sharing (information about your collaboration with private companies, research dissemination, outreach, student recruitment, and research awards)
8. Or other activities that benefit AAU or your department

The Executive Board has decided that it wishes to coordinate the financial framework for salary negotiations across AAU and will therefore establish the financial framework for both TAP and VIP prior to the annual salary negotiations. 

For the 2026 annual salary negotiations, the Executive Board has decided to set the financial framework at 1% of the calculated total payroll for both VIP and TAP. The aim is to distribute the salary improvements equally between permanent supplements and bonuses, though some flexibility is allowed.

The 1% financial framework is calculated using the following formula:

(Actual salary* (june) x 12 months) x 1% = salary cap

*  The framework is calculated based on the PBI report, which uses the TAP/VIP salary—including pension—at BPI hierarchy level 2.3.2, from which the following salary groups have subsequently been deducted: managers, department heads, deans, students, exam supervisors, student assistants, etc.
The salary for the month of June has been selected, exactly as described in the formula above. The salary negotiation framework must cover both the salary increase and the pension increase.If you have any questions about the financial framework, please contact the Finance Department. 

Bonus

A bonus is a one-time payment that, as a general rule, is not pensionable. Therefore, these payments only affect the limit based on their current amounts.

Qualification supplement

Qualification supplements, including local wage agreement steps, are pensionable and are scaled based on the level of employment. These therefore affect the total amount, which consists of the current amount, scaled according to the level of employment, plus the employer’s pension contribution.

Reclassification/Pay Grade Change

Reclassification and a change in pay grade result in a new base salary, which is pensionable and scaled based on the employment level. These factors therefore affect the budget by the difference between the current base salary and the future base salary, scaled according to the employment rate, plus the employer’s pension contribution.

If there are existing qualification allowances that are eliminated in connection with the salary improvement, these are offset against the impact on the framework. 

There may be situations in which a union representative represents their own supervisor or a supervisor with whom they have a close relationship, but, due to this relationship, is not comfortable negotiating on their behalf. In such exceptional cases, these employees must therefore have their negotiations handled by their union.

To support this, it is important to report these situations to HR Digitalization so that they can be properly registered and processed.

At Aalborg University, the annual salary negotiations take place in the fall, toward the end of the year, and are based on performance over the past year.

For more details on the phases and deadlines of the process, see our process visualization:

Process Visualization

Negotiations are based on performance over the past year. 

Qualification Supplements and Position-Specific

These pay increases will be paid for the first time in January of next year for both VIP and TAP.

Bonus

The VIP bonus will be paid out in December of this year.

The TAP bonus will be paid out in January of next year.

You will usually be notified of the outcome of the negotiations sometime in December. 

Apart from significant changes to your position, you can negotiate your salary only once a year, during the annual salary negotiations.