Online action week for better academic working conditions

Students and researchers back effort to protest against slow progress of employment reform

Trade unions, employee and student representatives across Germany have launched a week of ‘action’ to demand better working conditions in science, more permanent positions and collective bargaining for student employment.

The move was triggered, in part, by what the protesters perceive as slow progress on a reform of Germany’s fixed-term contract law for science (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz), which was meant to improve job safety for early career researchers. The participants in the proposal also demand that students are given collective bargaining powers so they can better negotiate their own employment laws.