Improving work conditions of student assistants, PhDs, Postdocs etc

As mentioned in my comment, I am in full agreement that working conditions for young scientists tend to be somewhere between precarious to downright terrible, but I do not share your impression that this is an Austrian, or even a European, problem. Still, I agree that the situation is dire and needs improvement, independently of whether it is the same or worse than elsewhere.

I have by now moved to Sweden and my impression is that working conditions for young scientists here are quite good, much better than in most countries. What seems to help are the following:

• Flat management structures and a fairly consequent implementation of the "many eyes" principle. Unlike in Austria, where people tend to be at the mercy of a single chair or full professor, a young scientist in Sweden tends to work with many different faculty members, both in research and teaching. PhD committees have multiple internal members, all of which meet regularly with the student, providing realistic ways to escalate issues with the main supervisor.
• Part of this are also yearly one-on-one meetings of all students with the head of the PhD school as well as with the head of the division, where problems can be raised (really, it is expected that issues are raised here, and this is not seen as an attack against the main supervisor, as it may be in Austria).
• Fairly generous paid vacations on all levels, and an expectation that this vacation is indeed taken yearly.
• Clear rules for hiring. There are no vague promises of jobs - all positions need to be announced and run through a hiring process in which HR is involved. This is quite transparent, and internal hires are rare to start with.
• Explicit support for mental health. Our university has a contract with a mental healthcare provider, which all employees can consult if they feel stressed or depressed. Usage of this provider is anonymous and encouraged by senior faculty.

It helps that the faculty/student ratio here is much lower than what I have seen in Austria (about 1:2 in my division, versus about 1:20 in the group where I did my PhD), and that the Scandinavian culture tends to de-emphasize hierarchy to begin with.

what can we do as young researchers/academics against an oppressive system when we are not even being represented in works' councils? Who to turn to for help and support? Are there pan-European research associations that we can become involved in to take up these issues?

Realistically, what will be needed to substantially improve working conditions will be to break up the chair structure. As long as a single professor is the sole authority over a student or postdoc, mistreatment will happen and continue to happen.

I am afraid, neither external associations nor students can do much to make this change happen - it will need to come from within. Short-term, the only thing that students and employees can and should do is vote with their feet - don't go to universities and groups that have a history of treating their employees badly, and warn others from going there if you feel you have been mistreated.

In Europe there is Eurodoc http://eurodoc.net/

Eurodoc is the European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers. It is an international federation of 32 national organisations of PhD candidates, and more generally of young researchers from 32 countries of the European Union and the Council of Europe.

Eurodoc’s objectives are:

• To represent doctoral candidates and junior researchers at the European level in matters of education, research, and professional development of their careers.

• To advance the quality of doctoral programmes and the standards of research activity in Europe.

• To promote the circulation of information on issues regarding young researchers; organize events, take part in debates and assist in the elaboration of policies about Higher Education and Research in Europe>

• To establish and promote co-operation between national associations representing doctoral candidates and junior researchers within Europe.

and EuroScience https://www.euroscience.org/

EuroScience is the non-profit grassroots association of researchers in Europe.

Open to European researchers across disciplines and countries, EuroScience undertakes to advance science and innovation in Europe, thereby promoting the interests of its thousands of members.

In Italy there is the Associazione dottorandi e dottori di ricerca italiani https://dottorato.it/

It is (and probably always will be) a very group-local cultural thing. So in the end vote with your feet remains the only option.

I can speak only for German universities, which in recent years have established quite a number of structural components to prevent misconduct and exploitation of young researchers. From mandatory letter-of-intents regarding supervision over formal documentation of the process. From stronger regulation regarding contract periods up to PhD assemblies on the university level.

With very limited success.

• Most measures first and foremost just increase bureaucracy. The Professors who have always treated their PhD students and post docs well, lose flexibility and have to spend a lot of additional time in dealing with administrative regulations. Those who have always behaved like a*holes, still do so. They stress the regulations as far as possible and find creative ways to weasel around them – despite the additional paper work, the actual situation for their subordinates has only marginally improved, if at all.
• PhD assemblies / unions are a nice idea, but also a hopeless attempt for many reasons. Because the situation and environment is extremely different among disciplines and groups already at the university level, there is little to fight for that realistically can improve the situation for a majority of young researchers. Furthermore, it turned out to be extremely difficult to find representatives who want to do the job: During the 3 to 6 years of a PhD, you have lots of other things to do. It would take at least 3 years to be able to understand university politics and even longer to influence it – and then you are already out. How should that possibly work better on a nation-wide or even european level?
• The only measure I personally consider as partly successful is the establishment of formal ombudspeople for young researchers that have difficulties with their supervisors. I have seen several times that consulting the ombudsperson helps to find individual solutions in cases of misconduct (and sometimes the solution is to quit). But it is a measure for individual solutions and not general regulations – and, honestly, I think that is the reason for its success.

So while I strongly sympathise with your intent, the only advice I have: As you progress with your career, establish and live your own positive culture of treating your subordinates well. Tell you colleagues about it, fight for it as a criterion in hiring committees, and show the world that such culture does not harm the success of a research group.