London

British researchers are expressing concern that European Union (EU) rules intended to give workers more job security could wreck the careers of postdocs in their labs.

The EU directive on fixed-term contracts became part of UK law in October 2002. According to Britain's research councils, it means that a postdoc must be offered a permanent contract after four years. In addition, lab chiefs must write a justification for not offering such a contract after three years. The first of these reviews will happen in October 2005.

But as lab chiefs face up to these requirements, they are complaining that they won't be able to increase the number of permanent contracts. The rules will force them to dismiss good postdocs, they say.

“If you are training group leaders they need to have publications. Three years is totally unrealistic, four is on the edge,” says Alan Hall, head of the Medical Research Council's Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology at University College London. “If it had been five then it might not have caused so many problems.”

Mark Marsh, who runs an HIV lab at the MRC facility, says that he is worried about the effects on recruitment. “We have to tell potential postdocs that we can't guarantee more than 3–4 years,” he says. “What if it takes 4½ years to get that crucial paper?”

The UK postdoc system — like that of the United States — has traditionally been very flexible. Contracts lasted as long as funding was available and the supervising researcher was happy with the work. But the system has been criticized for trapping postdocs in a series of short-term contracts, with no job security and little prospect of obtaining a permanent position.

Hall defends the old system. “The success of my research group depends on new young people coming to the group with new ideas and new directions,” he says. He draws a distinct contrast with the situation in France, which he sees as a rigid system that depends mainly on permanent research staff.

The EU rules aren't specific to research, but were introduced as part of a general effort to push employers away from a reliance on short-term contracts. No one at the research commission in Brussels was available to comment on the rules' implications for science. But some unions that represent postdocs have argued for steps that would outlaw their indefinite retention on short-term contracts.