The Netherlands’ universities have taken the unusual step of tearing up the new pay deal for university staff because of planned government cutbacks, the Financieele Dagblad reports.

The agreement would have given personnel a one-off €500 payout in November and structural pay rise of 0.5% in January 2011.
But government plans to use money in a special knowledge and infrastructure fund to pay off the state debt instead means thousands of research jobs are at risk, the university association VSNU told the paper.
Under these circumstances, it would be ‘irresponsible’ to implement a pay rise, the VSNU said.
Unions said the VSNU had proved itself an ‘untrustworthy partner’ and that it was well-known cuts in university spending were on the way.