[obsdoc] Situation des postdocs: editorial de Nature

[Franck Marchis <fmarchis@astron.berkeley.edu>]

Bonjour,

Dans son editorial date du 28 Novembre 2002,  Nature a detaille la situation des postdocs ("casual labour workers") et l'impact negatif sur la recherche en general ("... many researchers only look as far as the next research position").
Une copie de l'edito en anglais est joint a cet email.

Il y a quelques reactions dans certains pays pour ameliorer le statut des travailleurs interimaires de la recherche.
Le gouverment du Royaume-Unis a decide d'augmenter leur salaire dans les universites.
Certaines universites americaines (par exemple les UC-Universites de Californie) ont propose une refonte complete du systeme des postdocs, avec en particulier une meilleure couverture sante pour les postdocs et leur famille (identique a celle des etudiants et des professeurs), une echelle de salaire
elargie et imposee par l'administration (avec un suivi de l'evolution du salaire), et enfin et surtout une limitation ferme a 5 annees de postdocs.
Vous pourrez trouver les documents sur http://www.ucop.edu/acadadv/acadpers/apm/postdoc.html

et en France et dans le reste de l'Europe,  il y a de reelles efforts pour clarifier le statut des emplois precaires dans la recherche?

Franck Marchis
Intermittent de la recherche en astronomie a UC-Berkeley


--
--- Franck Marchis ------------------------ Phone: +1 510 642 3958 --
    University of California       Postdoctoral Research Associate --
    Dept. of Astronomy                        Fax: +1 510 642 3411 --
    601 Campbell Hall                 fmarchis@astron.berkeley.edu --
--- Berkeley CA 94720 - USA --http://astron.berkeley.edu/~fmarchis --


---

Nature 420, 345 (2002); doi:10.1038/420345b [28 November 2002]:


"Postdoctoral abuse (cont.)


The failure to provide appropriate career structures for young scientists
persists.


In these enlightened times, one might expect an investigation that revealed
the miserable existence of thousands of workers, who are exploited and
forced to work repeatedly on contracts for low pay with few benefits or
little job security, to raise at least ripple of protest. But when a British
parliamentary committee highlighted the continuing plight of postdoctoral
researchers last week, and pointed out that university research is now
second only to the fast-food industry in the proportion of casual labour it
employs, a pricked conscience or two seems to have been the best that it
could hope for.

The plight of the postdoc has been well documented, not least in the pages
of this journal. In recent years, Nature has covered a depressing range of
reports and studies from Britain as well as France, Germany, the United
States and others, all saying that postdocs are undervalued and poorly paid.
There have been studies, initiatives and pilot schemes aimed at improving
the situation. Why, then, does so little seem to have changed?

Often compared to an oil tanker altering course because of its slow pace,
change in higher education often more closely resembles the geological
formation of the oil itself. With little incentive to update employment
practices that discriminate against those on fixed-term contracts, there
seems to be little chance of achieving the radical change in university
culture demanded by British parliamentarians (see
http://www.parliament.uk/commons/selcom/s&thome.htm).

Yet with few guaranteed sources of even medium-term income, the universities
will rightly argue that they have at least one hand tied behind their back.
Those providing the funds must also shoulder more responsibility for the
well-being of those who do the research. The British government's recent
decision to raise postdoc salaries by £4,000 (US$6,250) a year is welcome.
All research councils should make it possible for contract researchers -
many of whom have years of experience - to apply for grants in their own
name.

The well-documented poor working conditions have not given rise to an
international recruitment or retention crisis. A famously stoical bunch,
many researchers only look as far as the next research position. What some
still view as a rite of passage before a glittering career has effectively
become a career in itself.

Generally, established researchers have failed to confront this issue. Too
many still hold the out-of-date opinion that postdoctoral years are a 'sink
or swim' exercise that "never did me any harm". On the contrary, there needs
to be better management of postdoctoral careers, and better mentoring.
Funding agencies should take such demonstrable commitments, or a lack of
them, into account.



------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2002 Registered No. 785998 England. "





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