House of Commons - Science and Technology - Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence

Select Committee on Science and Technology Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence

APPENDIX 30

Memorandum submitted by Prospect

INTRODUCTION

1. Prospect is a trade union representing over 105,000 members in the public and private sectors. Prospect was formed in November 2001 by merger of the Institution of Professionals, Managers and Specialists with the Engineers' and Managers' Association. Our members work in a wide range of jobs and organisations including in the aviation, agriculture, defence, electricity supply, energy, environment, heritage, industry and scientific research centres. Prospect represents large numbers of staff on fixed term contracts in these sectors. In this submission we use the terms "fixed-term contract" (FTC) and "short-term contract" (STC) interchangeably.

2. The body of our submission is structured to address the questions posed by the Select Committee. However, we would highlight the following recommendations for action by Government:

— Priority should be given to maximising the impact of direct funding on the science base and to securing a balance between core and contract funding. 60 per cent is the minimum acceptable level of core funding to enable research institutes or agencies to plan beyond the short-term.

— Where government contracts are let for the application of science and technology, a percentage should be earmarked for long-term research by the contractor. In line with the Rothschild principles, we see no good reason for this to be less than 10 per cent.

— In implementing recommendation 6.2 of the Roberts review, the Government should ensure that there is also appropriate trade union representation on the group established to support and monitor the responses of R&D employers to improving pay and career structures.

Does the preponderance of short-term research contracts really matter? Why?

3. The preponderance of short-term research contracts does matter and has consequences at three levels: individual, organisational and for the wider SET knowledge base.

4. Relying to any significant degree on STC staff for scientific research work disrupts continuity and adversely affects the organisational "stock" of knowledge. In addition, short-term research contracts foster short-term research proposals at the expense of long-term basic research. As Prospect members from one research organisation have commented:

"This has placed enormous burdens on staff in many areas who can find themselves over-committed and under great pressure to ensure delivery of work. The lack of continuity in funding and apparent lack of strategic direction has led to a growing feeling that there is no "career" here—only a treadmill of endless project work that can only be delivered by superhuman effort. An increasing number of staff have become demotivated by this to the extent that whereas they were once prepared to "go the extra mile" both in the public interest and in furthering their own career and scientific interests, they now feel that this is just another job and "clock off" on time . . . A key factor in the success of this organisation to date has been the vast experience and expertise gained by staff before the current arrangements were put in place. The opportunities to replenish that experience no longer exist under the present regime—we are mining this precious resource without investing for the future".

5. Yet, many research institutes are still heavily dependent on STC researchers. Table 1 shows the percentage of STC to all appointments at a number of research institutes. It also shows that, in every case, women fill a disproportionate number of STC appointments.

Table 1

Research Institute	STCs as Percentage of All Contracts (per cent)
	Males	Females	All
1	32	37	35
2	36	49	42
3	39	48	43
4	28	51	39
5	17	34	23
6	36	46	41
7	49	57	54
8	8	32	15
Note: Anonymised research council data 2001.

6. Current data from one of these research institutes shows that the highest concentrations of STCs are among junior scientific staff (assistant scientific officer and equivalent) and post-doctoral research staff. 50 per cent of junior scientific staff and 40 per cent of all post-doctoral researchers are on STCs. The concentration of post-doctoral STCs is lower for researchers who are able to progress to a senior research grade, but below this level it rises to 75 per cent.

7. Many Prospect members work in organisations in which newly appointed STC researchers spend their first few months training, then operate productively for a period of no more than two years before shifting their focus onto finding a new contract or permanent employment.

8. A year ago, the then IPMS conducted a series of case studies into the future of R&D. One of these (case study 2 in the attached leaflet) describes the experience of a core-funded scientist in a research institute forced to spend an increasing amount of time writing grant proposals to gain short-term staff and providing technical support for short-term staff in post. His testimony is an indictment of short-termism:

"The consequences of the short-term syndrome in public science are a lack of identity with the project, poor quality control, superficiality in work and publication, and a lack of identity with the institution. Public science is regarded as the hand maiden of business".

9. A Prospect member from another Research Council describes problems in the area of bioinformatics, where lack of job security and career progression compete against salary and other advantages offered by industry. This leads to severe recruitment and retention difficulties:

"Even if we can recruit good staff (and sometimes we cannot recruit anyone at all), we can seldom keep them more than a year or so".

10. Similar problems have been reported to us in atmospheric/marine sciences, for example in recruiting postdoctoral students with good mathematics or physics backgrounds. A recent recruitment exercise sought to fill 10 postdoctoral positions:

. Many of the potential PhD students, being highly numerate, have looked to go directly into alternative jobs, for example in the City, whilst the best postdocs are being drawn off to the USA because of better salaries and career prospects".

11. The consequences for the individuals concerned are discussed in response to the following question.

What are the implications for researchers and their careers?

12. For the staff employed on short-term contracts, effects include:

— Uncertainty about their future and that of their family as a permanent state of mind.

— Lack of career progression—even if they do secure a series of short-term contracts, these are often all at the same grade (with a long-term consequence for pension entitlements). It is too early yet to judge the effects of the Concordat in this respect.

— Feeling under pressure (often self-induced) to work long hours in order to complete work within the funding period.

— Having to leave at the end of the funding before they can satisfactorily complete or write up a piece of work, affecting their publication output.

— In some cases, having to leave a job early in order to secure a new position (and spending time on job-hunting and interviews at the expense of the current post).

— Delays in starting families—in some cases, feeling unable to start a family at all—until they do secure a longer-term position.

— Where both partners are scientists, difficulty in continuing to find employment in the same geographical area. This often seems to result in the female partner leaving science.

— Difficulties in securing mortgages and other financial services.

— Inability to apply as grantholders for Research Council grants or studentships because they will not necessarily be in post for the duration of the funding period—this makes it more difficult to establish a research reputation.

13. From the point of view of senior scientists who are themselves on longer-term contracts, line-managing short-term contract staff, the adverse consequences include:

— A disproportionate amount of time spent preparing funding applications in order to retain existing valued staff, at the expense of time spent on research, writing publications, public understanding of science and other key activities.

— The need sometimes to spend a fair proportion of the duration of a grant training a new staff member.

— Difficulty of maintaining research, which is by nature long-term (eg genetic resources conservation, many types of field studies, some ecology research, tree biology) on the basis of short-term contracts.

— The frequent loss of staff (often outstanding ones) before the end of a contract as they move on to new positions, and consequent worry over completing studies and meeting contractual commitments.

— Distress at being unable to offer contract staff any form of job security or, in some cases, career progression.

— Concern that research is not seen as an attractive career option by our most able undergraduate and postgraduate students.

— General concerns about erosion of the UK's skill base, particularly in areas where the skill must be built up over a long period, such as plant breeding, taxonomy, statistics.

— Barriers to recruiting non-EU citizens to short-term contracts even in circumstances where they are the only credible (or indeed, the only) applicants, making it even more difficult to carry out research or increase the skills base.

14. There are also implications for pay. For example:

— There are areas—such as the Meat and Livestock Commission—where fixed term contract workers are paid on the same scale as others, but are excluded from performance related pay.

— There are cases where fixed term contract workers are excluded from pay increases awarded to all other staff. A recent instance occurred at the Institute of Trading Standards Administration.

— In many areas of the public sector fixed-term contract employees are excluded from access to the pension scheme and, even where admitted, they are excluded from other pensions benefits, such as purchasing added years. Many scientists in research councils come into the pension scheme late, due to their post-graduate training or university post-doctoral experience. This makes it almost impossible for them to accumulate enough service to gain a full pension on retirement. This has been especially damaging to those who have been on repeated fixed-term contracts.

Is there evidence that the present situation causes good researchers to leave?

15. Research council data shows that turnover rates are on average two to three times higher for STC researchers than for those employed on indefinite contracts, though in some cases the disparity is much greater. Table 2 compares turnover rates at a number of research institutes.

Research Institute	Percentage Turnover Rates (per cent)
	Males	Females	All
1 Indefinite STC	10 20	12 17	11 19
2 Indefinite STC	5 8	5 12	5 10
3 Indefinite STC	4 16	7 11	5 13
4 Indefinite STC	5 15	6 30	5 24
5 Indefinite STC	6 35	1 18	5 27
6 Indefinite STC	10 26	21 28	15 27
7 Indefinite STC	14 19	18 17	16 18
8 Indefinite STC	5 20	1 80	8 7
Note: Anonymised research council data 2001.

16. As indicated, there is strong anecdotal evidence of researchers moving from one contract to another in an effort to maintain security of employment.

17. There is also evidence from Prospect's own personal and career development programme, "Opportunities for Change", of STC researchers driven to seek a complete change of direction because of the insecurity of their situation:

"Immediately following this course, and largely as a result of it, I have decided to quit science and apply for teacher training. The course made me realise that I could get job satisfaction doing something else and that I wasn't going to be able to achieve my long-term goals if I continued in my current field. Thanks for providing this workshop. It was timely for me and gave me the kick I needed to make the radical career change that has resulted in me being much happier in the last few weeks".

"I wanted to write to thank you for all your input, help and ideas that made the day such a success and so useful to me. In fact since the course I have done no work, merely surfed the net looking for a job. Whilst this may not have been the outcome you had in mind, the sessions certainly galvanised me into action again and I am sure that I am better placed in finding—and getting—a good job now. I think that in future it would be of great benefit to encourage students who are finishing up their PhDs to attend such courses as well as staff on fixed term contacts".

What would be the right balance between contract and permanent research staff in universities and research institutions?

18. As stated in our response to the DTI's consultation on the Fixed Term Contracts Directive, Prospect considers that all fixed term contracts should be subject to a test of objective justification. In our experience, many employers use fixed term contracts as an extended "probation" period, with the easy option to dismiss such workers at the end of the fixed term. The use of fixed term contracts should be limited to situations where there is a genuine short-term need for the worker. Whilst some funding will always be short-term, this does not mean that jobs should be offered on a short-term basis. Indeed, rigidly coupling employment to the funding cycles of individual contracts is a hallmark of shortsighted and lazy personnel management. Where absolutely unavoidable, jobs offered on STCs should have terms and conditions of employment equivalent to permanent jobs.

Has the Concordat and the Research Careers Initiative made any difference?

19. The position is starting to improve in some areas, driven mainly by legislative reform rather than the Concordat and RCI. The abolition of the unfair dismissal waivers and the proposed abolition of redundancy waivers have had the most significant impact.

20. However, it is still a common experience for staff in scientific research establishments to have to serve time on a series of fixed term contracts before being offered an indefinite appointment. It is in this arena, that the potential of the Concordat and RCI is greatest. Yet, although these initiatives are starting to have a positive impact, there is still much more that needs to be done. Our impression, from outside the university sector, is that there are pockets of good practice but that these have not yet built up to critical mass.

21. Two organisations that have taken positive steps to build better practice are the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

22. BBSRC has introduced fixed term "career track" contracts for specific grades of research staff. Career track posts are offered for an initial period of five years, during which progress will be regularly reviewed against a series of clearly defined targets. After four years a final review takes place and, if successful, the employee transfers to an indefinite contract.

23. In NERC, similarly, the policy is the STCs must be converted to indefinite appointments after a five-year period or released. This will reduce to four years for new contracts or contract renewals after July 2002. Two of NERC's research centres, the British Geological Survey (BGS) and Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL), no longer take on staff on contracts except in the most exceptional circumstances. For the STCs that remain in BGS, the policy is to review at three years rather than five. In effect the review is at one year nine months so as to give the staff the earliest notice of intention. Under this scheme there are in effect only 25 STCs left in BGS, down from 170 two years ago. 98 per cent of all STCs are converted to open-ended. The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) still takes most of its new staff on a STC basis and has a STC population of about 17 per cent. However, there is a high percentage of conversion to open-ended at the five-year review. The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) takes on all staff initially on a STC basis. BAS's conversion rate to open-ended is, however, very poor. In effect, they currently seem to have a "policy" of termination at five years.

How should policy move forward?

24. Priority should be given to maximising the impact of direct funding on the science base and to securing a balance between core and contract funding. Although contract-based research, which is essentially short-term, can respond to changing needs, core funding is essential for long-term research and surveillance. As the Council for Science and Technology have noted, many R&D programmes are long-term in nature and "cannot be turned on and off". The BSE inquiry report makes it clear that reaction to new developments and crises depends heavily on the continuity of pre-existing research lines and an ability for government policy makers to know who or what research to call on.

25. The balance between core and contract funding will vary according to organisational needs, but in our view 60 per cent is the minimum acceptable level of core funding to enable research institutes or agencies to plan beyond the short term and to develop long term strategies. Furthermore, where government contracts are let for the application of S&T, a percentage should be earmarked for long term research by the contractor. The 1972 "Rothschild principle" laid down in the "Framework for Government Research and Development" sets this percentage at 10 per cent, and we see no good reason for it to be less than this. Contract funding should as far as possible be conducted in a framework which maximises continuity and smooth transition.

26. To attract individuals to work in R&D, we support Sir Gareth Roberts' recommendations on the need for an attractive starting package and competitive salary progression. We are very concerned however that, given the constraints on public sector funding, such improvements should not be at the expense either of other SET staff or programmes. This is a key issue and will, no doubt, be addressed as the Government establishes the group recommended in the Roberts review to monitor and support employers' responses to these challenges. It is essential that there is a least one trade union representative on that group.

27. The other important dimension for individuals, also highlighted in the Roberts report, is the need to improve career structures and working experiences. As indicated, the RCI has made a useful start in the university sector but our impression is that it has not yet reached critical mass and in PSREs, it has had no locus. Prospect therefore developed its own personal and career development programme for FTC scientists, "Opportunities for Change". As described in the attached leaflet, this has run successfully as a partnership project over a three-year period. It provides an opportunity for individuals to step back from daily work pressures and, with the benefit of expert guidance, to review their current position and future career options. This is achieved primarily through:

— A series of workshops, seminars and one-to-one advice surgeries; and

— A personal and career development portfolio on CD-ROM.

The challenge now is to integrate "Opportunities for Change" more closely with existing workplace provision.

June 2002



© Parliamentary copyright 2002	Prepared 20 November 2002