Employment Conditions

Hi,

I recently started my new job as MSCA Postdoctoral Fellow in Germany. In one of the first e-mails I received from my host university upon the grant acceptance message, I was informed that I should not expect an employment contract under the collective agreement for academic university staff that covers researchers at public universities in the country. As the message put it, this has led to considerable confusion and misunderstanding with Marie Curie Fellows in the past, so they wanted to make this clear from the start. I was rather surprised that universities would use European grants to circumvent national collective agreements, so I contacted the trade union that represents researchers in Germany. The union replied that they are aware of the practices (and that they strongly oppose it), but that they need more information as to how widespread this is. Not having an employment contract following the collective agreement has negative consequences for a number of issues ranging from salary to pension and parental leave. I am currently trying to find out more about how this is done in different countries (and universities). I would very much like to hear from you (no matter which country you are based in) about:

- have you been offered a contract under the collective agreement that covers university researchers in your host country? If not, have you been made aware of that fact?

- have you been made aware of whether your host university uses the grant to cover both the employers' social security contributions AND your social security contributions? (As I learned from the National Contact Point, some universities in Germany pay the employer's contributions themselves, others use the grant to pay for the employers' contributions, which of course has a significant effect on your salary.)

I look forward to hearing from you.

Philipp