Sir

Although I agree with your Opinion article (Nature 414, 829; 2001) that the tax-free salary status of a few scientific researchers in Europe is an anachronism, I dispute your use of the phrase “gravy train”. Many life-science researchers are paid apparently generous tax-free stipends at some point in their careers, but these salaries are less generous after making reasonable provision for healthcare and retirement. Until Europe-wide agreements on these standard employment benefits have been reached, the alleged “gravy train” will continue.

You do not mention that government organizations such as the Max Planck Society in Germany often pay postdoctoral researchers tax-free stipends that can hardly be described as generous — between 17,850 euros (US$15,344) and 22,000 euros a year, depending on the exact circumstances. After private healthcare (about 2,500 euros a year) and a basic pension (about 2,000 euros) have been deducted, this is not a great deal of money.

This practice should be stamped out. Surely scientists deserve the same pay and working conditions as other professionals? The era of the tax-free stipend is indeed over, but for very different reasons from the ones you suggest.

It is easy to print melodramatic headlines about the high tax-free salaries of a few physicists at CERN and to overlook the real problems faced by many more scientists around Europe. Tax-free stipends are simply a way that scientific institutions and funding bodies escape responsibilities to their employees.