(Update Monday evening 19/05/2025: limited textual corrections and additions)
The Ghent University bicycle leasing regulations were negotiated at the Staff Negotiation Committee (POC) on Thursday, May 15, 2025. These negotiated regulations are then submitted to the board for decision.
Finally bicycle leasing also possible at Ghent University?
A few years ago, ACOD was the first to launch the request to start a bicycle leasing policy as part of a sustainable and social mobility policy at Ghent University.:
In concrete terms, we ask that the university purchase or lease (electric) bicycles at its expense and make them available to staff members as a "company bicycle", for both work and private use. Our university would thus follow the good example of other public employers (for example the City of Ghent) who have already made such a choice.
(See this article - Dutch only - of October 30th 2020 on our website, under the subtitle "ACOD wil verder gaan")
Because Ghent University wanted to make use of the fiscal option to use the gross end-of-year allowance as a bicycle leasing budget, a change had to be made to the Flemish regulations to make this possible. This happened via a decision of the Flemish government on July 19, 2024.
We note that it took a long time before management started discussions about bicycle leasing modalities with the trade unions. Although previously some information was occasionally provided about the state of affairs and management's plan of action (without sufficient time being provided for further discussion), the first substantive discussion about the bicycle leasing modalities only took place at the informal consultation on Thursday, April 10, 2025.
Now that negotiations took place on Thursday, May 15, 2025, the proposal still needs to be submitted to the board for a decision.
Nonsensical restriction on who can sign up for this bicycle lease
If this arrangement is approved by the board, staff members who wish to do so - and who meet the entry conditions (see below) - will be able to participate on a voluntary basis in this new bicycle leasing option that will be offered by Ghent University. According to management's proposal, the bicycle lease will officially start from January 1, 2026, with the option to join this fall (further communication from HR to all employees will follow later this year).
As stated in the management proposal, a number of conditions will apply to determine who may participate in the bicycle leasing scheme. In particular, it will be requested that these UGent staff members (where applicable across all UGent employments) have at least 50% effective work performance on the entry date (= in principle on January 1 of the starting year of the bicycle lease), and that the staff members involved still have "guaranteed employment" at UGent for at least 3 years and 3 months starting from that entry date. This means that anyone with a shorter employment period (e.g. doctor's assistants or postdoctoral fellows, whose appointment period lasts a maximum of 3 years) cannot in any case sign up for the bicycle lease, and therefore cannot use the option of purchasing a (electric or other) bicycle cheaper via this system. The same applies to those who have had a longer period of employment, but for whom (at least) 3 years and 3 months no longer remain at the entry date of the bicycle lease. The chance that there may or may not be an extension or employment in a different status is not taken into account.
ACOD believes this is an unnecessary restriction on who may sign up for the bicycle lease (on a voluntary basis). Such a restriction is also not applied to other employers who offer a similar bicycle lease, for example the Flemish government.
ACOD considers it important that employees who wish to sign up for the bicycle lease are correctly and clearly informed in advance about the bicycle lease budget they have available, about the total cost of the lease, and about the costs (= possible termination compensation if you choose to return the bicycle, or price still to be paid if you choose to take over the bicycle) associated with a possible early termination of the bicycle lease upon termination of employment. This way, these staff members can make an informed choice, but are not a priori excluded from that option. In this way, staff members can make their own balance of pro's and con's and, for example, even with a shorter period of remaining employment, realize a financial benefit (via the use of their gross end-of-year bonus, see below) on a purchase of a bicycle that they planned to make anyway.
Such timely, correct and clear information must also be offered in the management's current proposal to everyone who signs up for the bicycle lease, regardless of the size of the group, which was also confirmed by management during the negotiations. This is therefore not about extra work that is added by expanding the group that could participate in bicycle leasing.
Furthermore, we note that in its proposal management interprets this required period of 3 years and 3 months of remaining employment in a way that also excludes groups that in reality do meet this condition. For example, assistants are also excluded, although they usually have an appointment of 6 years. After all, Ghent University regulations stipulate that only in the event of a negative evaluation of the previous 2-year term as an assistant, no new extension of 2 years (up to the maximum of 6 years) will be granted. The possibility of a negative evaluation and termination of employment during the lease period is generally as big or as small as for other personnel groups. It is therefore nonsensical to state - as is happening here - that assistants only have 2 years of employment and are therefore not eligible for the bicycle lease.
The same applies to the large group of doctoral scholarship holders, who will not be eligible via the 1+3 construction of the doctoral scholarships, with an extension for 3 years subject to a favorable evaluation of the doctoral research after the first year. However, it should also be noted that due to the tax exemption on doctoral scholarships, as well as on postdoctoral scholarships, the benefit of a bicycle lease through the UGent scheme for these colleagues is much more limited compared to renting or purchasing a bicycle themselves. For these scholarships, the gross end-of-year allowance virtually corresponds to the net amount - the difference consists only of the RSZ contribution - and there would therefore be very little bicycle leasing budget available.
For the sake of completeness, it should be said that management indicated during the negotiations that they wish to evaluate one year after the start-up whether or not the group that can sign up for the bicycle lease can be expanded. As also stated during the negotiations, ACOD does not see what useful additional information will be available at that time that is not yet available or cannot be estimated now. Also with regard to whether or not expanding the group that can sign up will lead to additional workload for the Ghent University services involved, management could not indicate what this would be in concrete terms compared to what must now be done anyway when introducing the bicycle lease for the more limited group in their proposal.
Finally, FWO aspirants or postdoctoral fellowships are also being left out for the time being. Since the FWO is the formal employer of these colleagues, Ghent University cannot grant a bicycle lease via an end-of-year allowance, but the FWO should provide this itself. This is not yet the case.
Who will pay the costs of this bicycle lease?
ACOD regrets that this bicycle lease will in fact be fully financed by the staff members themselves, in contrast to our original request from 2020 (see above) that the university would finance this.
On the one hand, employees who wish to make use of this will have to waive (part or all of) their end-of-year bonus for the duration of the lease period (3 years).
This end-of-year allowance will be used to pay the lease costs. In accordance with the relevant legislation, the social security contribution and withholding tax - which would otherwise be withheld from the end-of-year bonus - can also be used as part of the budget available to the employee to lease a bicycle. However, the latter also means that (this part of) the end-of-year bonus of the staff members involved is also not taken into account for the accrual of social rights, more specifically for the accrual of the legal pension of contractual staff. In concrete terms, this will have a (limited) negative impact on the statutory pension amount for those who have a gross annual salary that falls below the maximum salary ceiling taken into account for the pension calculation, currently at 80,485.32 euros for 2024.
Please note: at the request of ACOD, management has confirmed that this will have no impact on the accrual of the supplementary pension of the contractual employees involved (= those in the new supplementary pension scheme since 2016, as in the old supplementary pension scheme the effective amount of the end-of-year bonus does not play a part in the calculations). The additional pension contributions that UGent pays for them to the pension fund remain calculated on the basis of the (theoretical) full end-of-year bonus that they would be entitled to if they had not taken out the bicycle lease.
We also note that Ghent University chooses not to make the employer's social security contribution - which in this bicycle leasing scheme, just like the employee contributions, do not have to be transferred to the government - available as a bicycle leasing budget for the staff member, but to keep it themselves. This concerns an employer contribution that, depending on the status, amounts to between 5% and 32% on top of the gross salary, which in this case is thus saved on the normal total cost of the end-of-year allowance for those who participate in the bicycle lease.
On top of this, UGent does also personally charge the staff member who signs up for the bicycle lease an annual fixed administrative cost of 55 euros. Over a lease period of 3 years, this means that the staff member has 165 euros less available to finance the lease of the bicycle. Not only does Ghent University not make any contribution to the cost of the bicycle that will be leased by the staff member, the staff member must also pay additional fees to Ghent University in order to be allowed to lease a bicycle with their own end-of-year allowance.
ACOD UGent does not agree with this approach
In order to avoid unnecessary delays in the start-up of the bicycle lease, ACOD has proposed to management that the ongoing practical elaboration (negotiations with bicycle partner, development of a simulation tool for end-of-year allowance, etc.) should continue unabated as these are not part of this remaining debate, but that the negotiations regarding the above modalities regarding who is allowed to sign up and about who bears which costs should not yet be completed, but that these elements should be further discussed and clarified with the aim of arriving at a constructive and supported solution prior to the information and registration period (which would start later this year). Unfortunately, management did not agree on this.
ACOD has therefore given a protocol of non-approval to the present modalities of the bicycle lease, for the reasons set out above. ACV and VSOA however did provide a protocol of approval.
We are now waiting for the board's final decision on the bicycle leasing regulations. In addition, we are currently also waiting for the so-called "bicycle policy" in which the concrete leasing conditions of the bicycle partner will be laid down. This concerns, for example, the concrete conditions regarding offer, prices, support, insurance, whether or not a termination compensation is due and, if so, what the amount of this termination compensation is, ...
As soon as this information becomes available, we will also report on this.
Do not hesitate to contact us at ACOD@UGent.be if you have any further questions. We will try to answer this in advance based on the information already available.