The labour reform It is not only fought at the social dialogue tables and in the offices of the Congress of Deputies: it is also controversy in universities. The unions totally reject the request of the Conference of Rectors to create a figure similar to the work and service contract, widely used until now in the field of research and which will remain eliminated at the end of March by the new norm, and demand that the leaders of the University take advantage of the opportunity to promote stable contracts in an activity that is often temporary and poorly paid.
Given the note issued this week by the Conference of Rectors (CRUE) in which it warns of “negative impacts […] in the field of research” due to the abolition of this formula for temporary hiring, the Deputy Secretary General for Trade Union Policy of the UGT, Mariano Hoya, replies that “what has to be done is contracts indefinite or fixed-discontinuous, with decent wages so that researchers do not go to other countries; It is unfortunate that the rectors demand the contract for work or service, which has done so much damage to the stability of employment in this country”.
Raul Olmos, Attached to the Secretary of Trade Union Action of the CCOO, adds: “If we have carried out a labor reform to end precariousness, and everyone agrees that temporality negatively affects the quality of research, It is not understood that the rectors themselves advocate these formulas“.
No problem hiring
Given the warning from the president of the CRUE, Jose Carlos Gomez Villamandos, that if an alternative to the contract for work or service is not articulated “as of April we are going to have a big problem that could cause the science and technology system to stop”, the unions say that transitory periods foreseen in the labor reform allow Universities to adapt to the new contracting formulas.
Contracts for works or services in force before the end of the year they may continue until they expire, with a maximum of three years; those made in the months of January, February and March will be valid for six months, and in addition the labor reform itself contemplates that contracts can continue to last as long as a research project if it is financed with European funds, explain in CCOO.
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In addition, it is expected that in the coming months the new Science Law, currently undergoing a public hearing, will enter into force and that includes improved contracting formulas for researchers. Unlike the Science Law in force, which supports temporary hiring, the preliminary draft that will go to the Council of Ministers in the coming weeks includes -in its current design- a new type of indefinite contract, called “scientific-technical activities contract”, which may be linked to the existence of funding for specific projects (in which case it will not require prior authorization) and which includes compensation for dismissal similar to that of indefinite contracts standard in case of extinction. Termination compensation is also contemplated for the predoctoral and postdoctoral contract modalities, in this case 12 days per year worked.
The unions are still examining that regulation, which has been publicized this week, to obtain the contributions of the sector. In any case, the line of its claims regarding researchers will be that put an end to bad practices that have so far led to work or service contracts: “concatenating contracts as projects emerge, hiring a researcher for a project and ending up working on three different ones, jumps from one project to another… these irregularities have made of Spain, the country in the developed world with the highest level of precariousness among its researchers”, points out Olmos.
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