If you secured funding for your PhD project you will have signed (or have to sign) an employment contract. There are various forms of employment for PhD candidates. Because of this, this section is probably the most difficult one to streamline. One major issue is the fact that these contracts are in no way connected to your status as a PhD student. PhD students have no lobby or union.
BUT: We receive a monthly salary, are health insured and consider ourselves employees. How are these two things compatible? It’s pretty simple actually. The center for doctoral studies does not consider us employees and the department for human resources and gender equality does not consider us students. We are simply part of two distinct systems:
1. On the one hand we have the same rights and obligations as a student.
2. On the other hand we have the same rights and obligations as an employee of the university.
This is what we’ll discuss in this section. (more to follow… under construction)