{"id":1672,"date":"2025-03-06T10:15:08","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T10:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=1672"},"modified":"2025-03-06T10:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T10:15:09","slug":"from-postdoc-to-where","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=1672","title":{"rendered":"From Postdoc to Where ?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In October 2023, Oxford University and College Union (UCU) published a repor<\/a>t on the effects of casualisation at the University. They found over 66% of academics employed by Oxford University are on fixed-term contracts. Similarly, Cambridge\u2019s UCU branch found that 69% of research staff were working on fixed-term contracts, with 13% on contracts lasting 12 months or less, as noted here<\/a>. For comparison, the national average for UK universities is ~33% on fixed-term contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fixed Term Employee (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations (2002) states that, after four continuous years of service on a fixed-term contract, an employee is generally entitled to a permanent contract unless the employer can show a valid reason to continue the fixed-term arrangement. Specifically, the Regulations say that if<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(a) the employee has been continuously employed under the contract or under that contract taken with the previous fixed term contract, for a period of 4 years or more, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(b) the employment of the employee under a fixed term contract was not justified on objective grounds …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

then an employee who considers they are a permanent employee can then make an Application to an Employment Tribunal for a declaration to that affect.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Continuation of the fixed term contract can be justified only if: “(a) it responds to a genuine need; (b)  it is appropriate for achieving the objective pursued; and (c) it is necessary for the purpose.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does this legislation affect the rights of postdocs and fixed-term workers in Universities?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week has seen the publication of an important judgment, namely Dr Kearn Grisdale versus Oxford University, available here.<\/a> Dr Grisdale has been employed at Oxford’s Department of Astrophysics since 18 October 2017 under a series of Fixed Term Contracts which have been exclusively funded by external Research Grants. He argued at Employment Tribunal that Oxford was obliged to offer him a permanent contract under the terms of the Fixed Term Employee Regulations (2002).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He lost the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case turned on whether the fixed term contract responded to a genuine need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Tribunal reminds itself the test is whether there is a genuine need and it is clearly not for the Tribunal to assess whether the need is reasonable. The Tribunal has not therefore undertaken a detailed analysis of the rights and wrongs of how the Respondent [Oxford University] organises its finance and uses the funds available to it. The Tribunal concluded that use of successive contracts was appropriate and reasonably necessary for the specific purpose of responding to the needs identified.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The 21 Group is baffled by the reasoning. The judge has argued that the need to use a fixed term contract may simultaneously be “genuine<\/em>“, but it also need not be “reasonable<\/em>“. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oxford has an annual net profit of \u00a3130 million plus \u00a35 billion in liquidable assets. They clearly have the funds, they just choose not to spend them on offering postdocs permanent contracts. The very point at issue is the “the rights and wrongs<\/em>” of how Oxford uses its funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem with the system is that the risk is entirely borne by the postdocs. Universities take the benefits but completely absolve themselves of the risk or responsibility of employing researchers longer than the project grants with which they are associated. Universities won\u2019t update the fixed-term contract system \u2014 or even ameliorate its very worst features \u2014 despite simultaneously and insincerely insisting on their commitment to diversity and inclusion or treating staff fairly and respectfully.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fixed Term Employee (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations does still have some benefits for postdocs. Those employed on fixed-term contracts must be treated equally to permanent staff as regards terms and conditions of employment (e.g., pay, holidays, access to research funding, career development opportunities, office space, computer support, travel money). They cannot be excluded or treated differently just because they have a fixed-term contract. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 21 Group doubts whether this is the case in practice, especially in such hierarchical places as Oxbridge. For example, a departmental office policy in which postdocs are hot-desking, while permanent staff have single offices would seem to break the legislation. Similarly, restrictions on the right of postdocs to act as primary supervisors of graduate students or to apply for grants as Principal Investigators would also seem to contravene the legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In October 2023, Oxford University and College Union (UCU) published a report on the effects of casualisation at the University. They found over 66% of academics employed by Oxford University are on fixed-term contracts. Similarly, Cambridge\u2019s UCU branch found that 69% of research staff were working on fixed-term contracts, with 13% […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1672"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1695,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672\/revisions\/1695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}