Public sector employer
As far as employment, salaries and benefits are concerned, the Max Planck Society and its Institutes base their actions on the regulations contained in the Collective Wage Agreement for the Civil Service (TVöD).
The TVöD applies to employees in the public sector. As a state-funded research organization, the Max Planck Society is a so-called recipient of grants — it is financed to the tune of around 95 percent out of public funds from the federal and state governments and the EU. Its scientists are also subject to the collective agreement provisions of the TVöD.
There are therefore limits to the powers of the Max Planck Society and the Max Planck Institutes when it comes to salaries. However, the system contained in the TVöD also offers advantages which should be taken into account when opting for a career in the public sector:
- benefits and the additional old-age pension from the Federal and State Pension Institution (VBL)
- options for part-time work and teleworking as well as flexitime
- crisis-proof job which is not so heavily dependent on general economic developments
- attractive rates on insurance policies
- promotion of women enshrined in law; monitored by Gender Equality Officers
The Max Planck Society engages on a political level to enable German scientific institutions to respond even more flexibly than before to the challenges of increasingly intense international competition for the best minds and most attractive research conditions. It supports the initiative represented by the Freedom of Science Act, the purpose of which is to promote the networking of science and business and also to create a public procurement procedure free of administrative barriers and conducive to science.
Information on the Collective Wage Agreement for the Civil Service (TVöD) (in German)