European Court of Justice:

Grant contract instead of employment contract for

foreigners working on thesis may be unlawful

Dutch universities who have foreigners working on their thesis with a grant instead of an employment contract (with salary and social benefits) may be breaching European law.

Article 39 of the EU-treaty prohibits the discrimination of workers from other EU-memberstates (and certain other countries with which the European Union has treaties concerning labour issues).

Andrea Raccanelli from Italy worked on his thesis at a Max Planck Institute (part of a private-law association) in Germany. The institute paid him a grant as a contribution to living costs. Before a German court he argued that, according to European law, like his German colleagues he should be considered as a 'worker' and should have got an employment contract with all the benefits thereof. The German court asked the European Court of Justice for an interpretation of the EU-rules on labour relations.

According to the European Court a person has to be considered a 'worker' in the sense of article 39 of the EU-treaty if one performs services for and under the direction of another person (e.g. professor) for a certain period of time for which he or she receives remuneration (of whatever sort).

Ultimately the German court has to decide in Raccanelli's case.

The European ruling is completely in accordance with the judgment of the Dutch supreme court (Hoge Raad) in the case of a Dutch doctoral student working on a grant rather than an employment contract like his co-workers.

Foreign doctoral students working on a grant may go the court in order to be compensated for damage caused by the discrimination, even if they themselves accepted the grant contract.

For the complete judgement in the Raccanelli case:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JURISMonth.do?year=2008&month=07

(2008/07/17, case C94-07)