AU’s management is currently considering putting cleaning in some of the university’s buildings out to tender. The liaison committees and union representatives are involved in the process.

2019.01.28 | Louise Asmund-Hjorth

Photo: Lars Kruse

As a state sector institution, Aarhus University has an obligation to periodically review its technical and administrative operational tasks with a view to assessing whether they are suitable for performance by external contractors. The central tenet of the rules for tendering is that such operational tasks must be suitable candidates for competitive tendering. The management’s position is that these cleaning tasks are suitable candidates for competitive tendering, among other grounds because this is a task that other suppliers would be able to perform. This has been done at other universities and elsewhere.

The buildings in relation to which competitive tendering of cleaning is under consideration all house administration or teaching. Sites at which cleaning is more complex, such as research laboratories with special cleaning requirement and workshops, are not included in the competitive tender currently under consideration.

"Cleaning in the buildings in question is performed satisfactorily today. The employees who perform these tasks should under no circumstances feel that their work is not valued. Nonetheless, the university is under an obligation to periodically assess whether the best solution is for us to perform our technical/administrative tasks ourselves. By putting a task out to competitive tendering, we can better assess whether it can be performed differently. The university’s assessment will be influenced by dialogue with the employee representatives during the process", according to University Director Arnold Boon.

Last year, Aarhus University adopted a strategy for competitive tendering of operational tasks on the background of the state sector procurement circular. Read it her (in Danish).

Liaison committees and union representatives
The management is considering whether to put the cleaning of 51 selected buildings out to tender, corresponding to 13 per cent of AU’s total area. The employees who currently perform this work are affiliated with the administrative centres at Aarhus BSS, Arts and ST. The proposal has been discussed by the liaison committees and at meetings with the relevant union representatives. And additional input to the proposal may be submitted via the liaison committees and union representatives until 19 February 2019.

The liaison committees and the union representatives’ views will be taken into account in the managements’ final decision on whether to put cleaning in the selected buildings out to tender. If the management decides to put cleaning out to tender, the tender process will take approx. 9-12 months. In the event of a tender process, the employees will have an opportunity to submit their own tender. If on this background it appears that AU can perform this task best and most economically itself, then AU will continue to perform the task itself. In that case, outsourcing will not take place.

Additional information

• AU Finance and Estates Projects and Development has created a website that offers explanations of concepts and answers to questions related to the proposal regarding competitive tendering.
• General questions about the strategy and the proposal may be directed to University Director Arnold Boonor Deputy Director Niels Jørgen Rasmussen, AU Finance and Estates Projects and Development.
• Questions regarding your group or your employment conditions may be directed to your immediate supervisor or your union representative.