Lakshya raj khatri
Eugenio Pescimoro
PROLOY TARAN DAS
MSCA model employment contracts: English and German reading versions
KoWi is an organization that supports German institutions to apply for and administer EU projects and has recently published the Horizon 2020 model contracts at http://www.kowi.de/en/kowi/news/marie-s-curie-model-employment-contracts-english-reading-versions-updates.aspx and http://www.kowi.de/en/kowi/marie-s-curie/conditions-of-work/model-employment-contract-for-msc-fellows.aspx. These contracts are designed as a starting basis for the host institution for the contracts that fellows are offered. The host is free to choose not to use these model contracts.
The Working Group, which developed these model contracts, consisted of:
- National Contact Point Marie S. Curie
- University of Bonn / Euroconsult
- Max-Planck-Society
- Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
- Helmholtz Association
- DLR (German aeronautics and space research centre)
- University of Duisburg-Essen
- KoWi
It is important to note that the MCAA German Chapter was not part of this Working Group and current fellows had neither input nor representation. The composition of this Working Group was decided and most of the work done long before our chapter existed. I will attend a meeting with Euraxess next week for their network of German host institutions. I would welcome anyone to share issues that relate to the wording of contracts in H2020 or FP7. In Germany employers are often reluctant to provide an English version of contracts. At least these translated model contracts can be read by the vast majority of fellows (if the host institutions sticks to the recommended contracts).
10 Comments
I appreciate the time the working group has put into this, but I feel this contract doesn't go far enough in making it absolutely clear to a Fellow what their rights are - for instance the section on Vacation entitelement (which we know from the Forum is one area where a number of Fellows have had problems with their entitlements) states:
"This contract is subject to the regulations on employment contracts pursuant to §§ 611 ff BGB (German Civil Code). Continued remuneration in the case of illness is based on the continued remuneration law from May 26, 1994 (BGBI.IS:1014) in its relevant version. Vacation time is subject to the regulations of the [TV-L/TVöD] in its relevant version"
This makes it difficult for a Fellow to find out what their rights are - of course a final document would have a number, but I'd like to see the example contract have an index linking to the relevant section of the Civil Code, and 'plain English' examples of the form 'As a postdoc you get 30 days'. I thought that the 2020 agreements had specific language stating that Fellows could not be disadvantaged relative to other employees - sadly I haven't got the document in from of me just now to check. This could be added to the pre-amble (fat chance!)
Hi Ed,
Is your vacation problem still not sorted out? Is the wording of your contract identical to the model contract?
From the point of view of a German Personnel Office the excerpt from the contract above should be very clear. You should get the same vacation as your colleagues - TV-L or TVöD. I work under TV-L and the vacation allowance has been increased in recent years - everybody now gets 30 days paid vacation regardless of age. If they had stated a fixed amount in the contract at the beginning of FP7, they would probably have written everybody gets 25 days. As it is written, you should get the same vacation allowance as your colleagues. I find that fair and practical.
You have several choices:
The last time you said that your boss was sympathetic about this issue. If he doesn't actually do anything to solve the problem, move down the list. The staff council can solve the problem if Personnel are "misunderstanding" your contract. The Euraxess Service Centre could take the last two steps out of your hands.
I was talking with KoWi yesterday and they have certain areas of overlap with the NCP. This concerns applying for grants but also how grants are administered . KoWi is legally a "club" that was founded by various German Institutions - DFG, DAAD, Fraunhofer, Leibniz, Max Planck and so on. They have more flexibility and freedom of movement than the NCP. All of the people at the German KoWi office are young people and speak English. If you cannot speak multiple foreign languages very well, you have no chance of getting a job there. The NCP is part of the federal government apparatus and is restricted.
Get back to me on this issue until its solved.
All the Best,
Brian
Hi everybody. Thanks for this post which I found really interesting. I am a Marie Curie Fellow here in Germany (just started last month) and, as you can imagine, all the bureoucracy I had to go through was in German, contract included. As Italian I must say it was not easy at all. So The model that you provided was really useful for me. For example from the grant agreement I completely misunderstood that the salary indicated was the one for the employer and not for the employee. This caused me a first shock when I was expecting much more and arrived much less. Anyway, about vacation I was told by the HR Department of the University where I work that by contract the vacations days I am entitled to are just 20 (10 less than other employers). I sent the model KoWi provided to them but they told me to go on with 20. I also talked with the guys responsible for the Marie Curie in Germany and they told me that:
"In general, employees are entitled to 20 days of vacation a year when working 5 days a week. In the so called Tarifvertrag (TV-L or TVöD), there is a special agreement that employees are entitled to 30 days of vacation a year. According to the clause in §4, you should indeed have 30 days of vacation. I know the template of the working contract, but is this clause also part of your actual working contract? The template is just a tool for orientation and might have been modified.Nevertheless, MSCA-Fellows should be on a par with employees in a similar position at the host institution, so 30 days of vacation would be fair."
This was just to let you know my experience. I asked butit did not lead to anything better.
Have you all a nice day.
Hi Margherita,
It's good to hear from you. I wasn't aware that the issue of vacation entitlement was such a widespread problem.
As a "mobile researcher", we spend much of our vacation visiting friends and relatives. With ten days less, you end up with almost no time to take a real holiday.
All the Best,
Brian
Thanks. That's exactly the problem. it is not a matter of complaint. We are lucky we have been awarded of a prestigious grant. The problem is that this grant, among taxes and less vacation, sometimes looks like a penalty. We should just have the same rights of all others employers.
all the best,
Margherita
Hi there,
I have to say for me it's less of an issue as I don't take that much vacation anyway, and have an informal agreement with my boss about time off.
However, when I have time I feel I should bring this up with the staff council for any Fellows who later come to join my Institute - and it would be helpful to all MCAA members to have a written precedent .
The exact wording is as follows:'Der Erholungsurlaub bestimmt sich nach dem Bundesurlaubgesetz von 8.1.1963 (BGB1.I.S.2) in der jeweils geltenden Fassung. Derzeit besteht ein Urlaubsanspruch suf 20 Arbeitstage pro Jahr' - Margherita is this the same for you?
Sorry for the late reply,
Ed
Hi Ed,
The advertisements for jobs at the DKFZ all say "Vergütung nach TV-L". All of your colleagues get 30 days vacation and they want you to accept 20. It annoys me that excellent researchers have to spend their time working through the minutiae of German labour law rather than just being productive scientists. If you want, I will contact the person responsible for that contract and inform them quite nicely about how they can protect the reputation of Germany as a destination for individual fellows by doing a better job.
Regards,
Brian
Hi Brian,
that would be great. Not only for the DKFZ but for all clinical institutions here in Germany. I work for an hospital, a university medical center and my situations is not that different. I contacted my PO in this regard and she redirected me to the National Contact Point. In the end they just told me to talk with the international office at my institution. But this did not solve the problem. I now still going with 20 vacation days, a salary taxed at 50% and I do not get neither the 13th salary. I am still convinced that, in the end, (not scientifically speaking) this grant is not a good deal. At least here in Germany it is not at all. Most of all beacuse I spent and still spend a lot of my working hours filling forms and doing bureocracy.
Sorry, sometimes I feel vey angry about this situation.
Regards,
Margherita
I would like to second Brian's comments about the KoWi team: I sent them an email and within half an hour Benedikt called me back to discuss my concerns. While the KoWi team can only advise on best practice, and can't enforce contract terms, they are certainly very helpful and speak excellent English.