Employment Contract

At least the following are included:

• Start - and end date of employment
• Position and scope of employment
• Information stating the contract is subject to (both) the Tarifvertrag für öffentlichen Dienst (TVöD) / Collective Wage Agreement for Government Service Workers and Dutch labour law
• Whether the employment contract is for a limited or an indefinite period
• Entgeltgruppe / Salary scale level
• Any other specific agreements regarding working conditions

With your employment contract, you will receive the following documents:

• Commitment Data Confidentiality
• Rules of good scientific practice
• Rules of procedure in cases of suspected scientific misconduct
• Information sheet on the protection of personal data
• Information sheet on the protection of personal data in research
• Data protection information for employees of the Max Planck Society
• Regulations on the Use of IT Facilities at the MPI for Psycholinguistics
• Regulations for the use of portable data storage media at the MPI for  Psycholinguistics
• Statute of the MPI
• Pension agreement
• Sick leave policy

Employment contracts can be for a limited or an indefinite period. If your work has a permanent character, then you can be employed for an indefinite period of time. If work activities are temporary in nature, then you will be employed for a fixed term (e.g., for a research project that will take a certain period to complete). Temporary employment contracts generally include the date on which the contract expires. 

There is a probationary period for both indefinite and fixed-term employment contracts. This applies to both you and the MPI. 

The probationary period for an employment contract of more than six months can be up to two months at most. The duration is mentioned in your employment contract. Both the employer and the employee can terminate the employment contract during the probationary period. For this, no notice period needs to be taken into account and no reason for termination needs to be provided, in principle. 

A request for a new contractually affiliated person or a request for an extension or adjustment (for example, working hours) of a contract of employment should be prepared by the secretary of the responsible department and given to HR at least one month before the requested start date of the employment/extension/adjustment. 

The start date and end date of a contract of employment should always be either the 1st or the 15th of each month. 

As per decision by our Board of Directors, all of our female employees with a temporary contract have the possibility to get a contract extension in case of absence due to pregnancy and maternity leave. The temporary contract can be extended with the period of leave of 16 weeks. 

Other renegotiation of your contract (for example, changing from full-time to part-time work or taking parental leave) should be discussed as soon as possible with your Director and HR. 

If you have a fixed-term employment contract, a definite date or duration will have been agreed upon beforehand or a duration can be determined objectively. Once the agreed period of time has elapsed, the employment contract will expire by operation of law. By operation of law means that no action is required by the MPI. The employment contract will end automatically. Approximately one/two months before your contract expires, HR will send you a reminder letter + checklist.

If you wish to submit your resignation, you will need to comply with the period notice, which is stated in your employment contract. In most cases, this period is one month. You will need to submit your resignation in writing to your supervisor and HR. 

The number of hours in a standard full-time work week is 39 hours per week.