Improving work conditions of student assistants, PhDs, Postdocs etc I have been following threads on this website for a few months now. However it's my first time posting. I am a postdoctoral researcher from a Western European country who has done reasonably well since my PhD a few years ago in terms of attracting funding, publishing, teaching etc. My professional situation for the next 2-3 years is secure (I have won a competitive European grant) and I am very happy with what I am doing research-wise. To be clear, this is not a rant &amp; it isn't about me specifically.  

I have recently completed a three-year postdoc in Austria in a humanities subject. What I have witnessed there has greatly upset me: I saw careers being shattered, research being stifled or appropriated, young researchers being exploited with promises of jobs that never came or work conditions that were so bad that they never finished their degrees, students 'bound' to their supervisors in ways that I would not have imagined possible in the 21st century, etc. In short, an incredible waste of talent and resources...

Now I am moving to another European country but I still feel very strongly about my experience in Austria and I wish I could do something about it. I know that what I have witnessed isn't unique to Austria, although things are perhaps worse there than anywhere else in Europe. In Austria I felt a sense of hopelessness I had never experienced before - people were just afraid to speak out and lose their jobs; in fact it was so bad that several co-workers turned to me for advice and support, despite my own situation being precarious. 

At the time I realized that we had no-one to turn to for help. Works' committees were mostly for people with permanent jobs in the institute - not for students or people like me on short-term contracts. So here is my question: do you know any young researchers' professional associations or unions, perhaps at European level, with whom I could share my concerns? Surely the sort of problems described here are common in academia and there must be structures to represent us?
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.