ETUCE encourages the higher education and research institutions to sign the European Charter and Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers

At the occasion of the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers, ETUCE encourages the higher education and research institutions to sign the Charter and Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers.

ETUCE, the European Region of Education International, the global union of educational employees, including researchers in the public and private sectors, has been supporting the main goals of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. Among others, ETUCE underlines the positive message of the Charter and Code of Conduct to ensure in particular stability and permanence of employment, gender balance, career development, career advice, value of mobility, and intellectual property rights for the researchers in Europe.

A foreword-looking strategy on the use and implementation of the Charter and Code of Conduct for Researchers is needed. Unfortunately, there is more to be done for the implementation of the Charter and Code of Conduct as still only a minority of higher education institutions and research institutes in Europe have endorsed the Charter and Code of Conduct. Several institutions signed the Charter and Code of Conduct but they do not follow them, as they do not consider the researchers as employees. ETUCE’s Policy Paper on Early Stage Researchers / Doctoral Candidates (2014) underlines the “status of the early stage researchers /doctoral candidates as employees, with all the social and professional rights of other employees.”

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