Researchers: are they workers?
IPKat - IP news and fun for everyone: The IPKat didn’t see this one coming because it isn’t really an IP case at all — though it seems to him that it does have repercussions for IP in a big way. It’s Case C-94/07, Raccanelli v Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Forderung der Wissenschaften eV, a reference to the European Court of Justice from the Arbeitsgericht Bonn (Germany) for a preliminary ruling.
Right: Max Planck — the face that launched a thousand institutes
This reference related to Article 7 of Council Regulation 1612/68 on freedom of movement for workers within the Community, which says:
“1. A worker who is a national of a Member State may not, in the territory of another Member State, be treated differently from national workers by reason of his nationality in respect of any conditions of employment and work, in particular as regards remuneration, dismissal, and, should he become unemployed, reinstatement or re-employment.
2 He shall enjoy the same social and tax advantages as national workers …
4 Any clause of a collective or individual agreement or of any other collective regulation concerning eligibility for employment, employment, remuneration and other conditions of work or dismissal shall be null and void in so far as it lays down or authorises discriminatory conditions in respect of workers who are nationals of the other Member States”.
Raccanelli, an Italian, was engaged as a junior researcher at one of Germany’s Max Planck Institutes, these being private law associations operating in the public interest. The Institutes operated two different schemes for junior researchers who were working on their doctorates: (i) a grant contract and (ii) an employment contract. The main difference between them was that the recipient of a grant was under no obligation to work for the institute and could devote himself entirely to work…