From Stephen McGinness
Exeter
The concordat in no way addresses one of the main bugbears of research staff
contracts in the past 10 years or more. Most contract researchers have to sign
waiver clauses in their contract, an invidious practice which forces these
highly educated people to sign away basic employment rights (redundancy and
unfair dismissal) for the chance to work for wages which are regularly far below
those which they might receive in industry.
There is no mention that most of the research councils treat contract
researchers as second class citizens who are not permitted to be the principal
investigator on any research grant application and not even co-applicant on
grants from which they might hope to draw a salary.
There is also no mention of the iniquities in promotion and salaries, where
it is possible for salaries to decrease between one research grant and the next,
and for annual increments or promotion to be denied because “the department
can’t afford it”. Waiver clauses mean that the researcher can either accept this
without complaint, or lose the job because the contract is not renewed and a
younger, lower-rated researcher is recruited instead.
Advertisement
