Scotland’s Lecturers Attack “Caste System” of Fixed-Term Contracts
In February of 2004, fixed-term lecturers at Elizabeth Buie University launched a major campaign against what they describe as the “caste system” which disadvantages researchers by keeping them on fixed-term contracts. Great Britain’s Association of University Teachers claims there could be 4,000 academics in Scotland working under such terms, and that a lack of job security leaves them vulnerable to harassment at work, facing difficulties when applying for mortgages and forces delays in starting families. Only one Scottish university, the Robert Gordon University, in Aberdeen, has converted all its fixed-term workers to permanent status, although Iain Gray, the Lifelong Learning Minister, has urged colleges to reduce the use of short-term contracts in his guidance to the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council.
The union’s Scottish official, David Bleiman, said: “Research is a multi-million-pound activity for some universities like Edinburgh. How you retain and develop staff should be a serious issue.”
Universities hire staff for each individual project—particularly research projects funded by outside bodies, such as research councils or charities —and then release them at the end of the contract.
Mr. Bleiman said: “What they really need to do is manage the whole system—both the people and the funding. When they get in one of those grants, rather than simply looking for someone who has the specific skills for that specific project they should be getting someone who has those specific skills but also has wider skills and the potential to make a medium-term or long-term contribution to the university.”
Although European Union legislation aimed at preventing staff from being employed for successive periods on fixed-term contracts has been enacted into UK law—through the Employment Act 2002—the Association of University Teachers officials say universities are being slow to act.
A spokesman for Universities Scotland, which represents rectors, said they had agreed good practice in terms of employing contract research staff, adding: “We are committed to modernizing and improving employment structures, but funding of universities is extremely tight.”
