Sweden: New law cuts ground from under young scientists' feet
Being a young enthusiastic scientist is not an easy path to tread. Not only does one have to hope for best results but one also has to deal with absurd laws and rules regulating working conditions. Swedish researchers are currently coping with new rules limiting temporary employment. By Karin Hollricher
Within the last ten years, in an era of increasing unemployment, more and more Swedish people have begun working under fixed-term contracts. The Swedish Parliament recently approved a new law stipulating that anyone must be hired permanently after working for 14 months on a temporary contract within a five-year-period. This new law applies not only to industry but also to universities. What follows from that is ridiculous: any PhD student who normally needs three years to complete his thesis has to be hired permanently. If universities fulfil the new law in form and content they will be obliged to either employ all their PhD students -and Post-Docs as well - or face losing their young scientists because 14 months is definitely too short a period to produce enough experiments of any significance.
Why hasn't the government foreseen that development? Politicians were warned by scientists that 14 months is definitely not enough time in which to complete scientific projects.
Once again, as from time to time, I find myself asking: Why does every government have to go through the motions to arrive at the same conclusions as the next? Perhaps politicians are like scientists: they only believe the results if they've done the experiment themselves!!
Let's take a look at Germany. For many years researchers and science organisations have been telling politicians that certain employment rules such as those regulating working hours are constantly violated because they do not fit in with the working mode of research. In addition, almost all scientists work on short fixed-term contracts because once one has got a permanent position one cannot be dismissed later. That's why the Wissenschaftsrat, an advisory body to the Federal Government and state governments, recommends offering open-ended employment to scientists below the level of professor, which should also serve to ease termination of employment. That's an optimal way of providing highly qualified scientists with a career perspective. Another option would be to tenure track as is commonly practised in the USA. Finally, this spring, the legal organizations concerned conceded that science needs special rules and laws. We'll see what comes of that.
Meanwhile, the Swedish Government has obviously ignored all the debates going on in other European countries. PhDs and Post-Docs now have to face the music.
