Should the stipend be paid if working remotely?

Question

So currently I am a final year undergraduate from a university in India and I am doing a research internship at a University in the United Kingdom.

The researcher under whom I am working had earlier offered to cover my living expenses, subsistence, accommodation at university's hostel (studio apartment) etc. with a stipend of 1400 british pounds p.c.m. and also pay for my flights.

However, due to the pandemic I am working from home from my country of origin i.e. India.

So, do you think he should pay me when I am working remotely, from the country of my origin or am I on my own.

Should I negotiate with him if he is to pay me at least some stipend or the same amount or he can totally choose to not pay me any stipend because I am working remotely?

Basically, I haven't asked him yet if he would pay me any stipend when I working from here. So should I ask him about this?

Also, I don't think any work or performance is being compromised.

Answer 1

Call him on the phone or over zoom and ask him.

"Considering this new situation with the pandemic, will I still get the original monthly stipend for this research position?"

If he says "yes". That's great. Just send him an email memorializing retroactively what he said to you over the phone or over zoom. If he says "no", see what he can offer you instead.

Keep in mind that it may be in his interest to make sure you get paid the original amount, so he can keep his budget for next year.

Answer 2

By the spirit of the agreement, they cover your cost of living and flights. So you won't "make" any money or get rich, but you don't have to take on another job during that period either. At the end of your contract you would not have lost or gained any money, but have been living a normal life with expenses paid. That is the intention of the contract.

Now, due to circumstances none of the parties of the contract could expect or influence, your situation changed. Your expenses are far lower. You did not pay for flights. The cost of living is far lower than expected. Paying you the original sum would probably make you a rich person in comparison to your peers that have a normal local job. That was not the original intention.

A fair solution to this would probably be to calculate what your cost of living is right now (including extras that you need for work, like a really good and stable internet connection) and take that as long as you are not physically in the UK.

That said, nobody expects you to just settle for "fair". You can try to get the best you can. You just have to make sure you don't sound greedy. Do not demand anything. Ask questions. If you have to do something to get this started, asked how to proceed during the pandemic. If they have to do something, ask if they still need anything from you. Go from there. If they don't want to keep to the original contract, and you aren't happy with their changes, ask "why" a lot. At some point the bureaucracy might work in your favor and actually changing your contract to something all sides agree on might be more work for them than just sending you more money than the "fair" amount.

Answer 3

The money is expressed as "an stipend"(not a salary) and it is expressly linked to your expenses.

This is not related to your work. It is only meant to pay your living expenses, so you can afford to further your career. In other words, you are working for your career, not for the money.

In such a circunstance, your position is weak. You may ask for all of it, of course, but if may be denied.

If it fails an alternative approach would be documenting your current living expenses and getting the university to, at least, pay for those. After all your remote work is hindering your ability to get a full time job in India, and it is reasonable to ask for at least a compensation for that.

One additional hurdle can be bureaucratic; if you were in the UK you would be under UK tax law and the university would know what to report and whom about the money they pay to it, it would be easier for them that it was send to you and that it was not someone "cooking the books"... An international payment may be more complicated for them to perform (do they need to report to the Indian tax office? How many taxes do they need to pay for it, if any? and other issues).

Answer 4

Theoretically, yes.

Even if you're not heading over there and staying (which would cancel the costs for relocation, living expenses, subsistence and accommodation), you're still doing the work, for which you are supposed to get paid the agreed upon amount as stipend.

However, practically, the best way to get a definitive answer (in this order) is:

• Check your contract about the stipend payout for the work done (whether there is any clause about being physically present or not)
• Talk to your research / internship guide.

In case there's no clear mention about this in the contract, your guide can probably help you getting things cleared up, and if you're interested in continuing the internship only if it's paid - you should say so. Most likely, after cutting down the costs for non-applicable cases (as mentioned above), you'll be getting the stipend amount (or, a fair part thereof), irrespective of your physical location.

Talk to them, and be sure of your priorities.

Answer 5

The researcher under whom I am working had earlier offered to cover my living expenses, subsistence, accommodation at university's hostel (studio apartment) etc. with a stipend of 1400 british pounds p.c.m. and also pay for my flights.

However, due to the pandemic I am working from home from my country of origin i.e. India.

So, do you think he should pay me when I am working remotely, from the country of my origin or am I on my own.

I would assume most of your expenses would not need to be covered when you are working remotely (no flights, no new living arrangements, etc). Thus you wouldn't get the same pay, and perhaps you would get none at all.

Normally, the original arrangement you describe is designed so that it doesn't cost you anything to take the position - not to enrich you. If your costs attributable to this job are zero, then they may decide not to pay you.

Should I negotiate with him if he is to pay me at least some stipend or the same amount or he can totally choose to not pay me any stipend because I am working remotely?

Unless you have a contract that requires something different, it would appear that he can totally choose to not pay you. Of course you don't yet know if you will be paid or not. You would need to decide if you should negotiate or not, based on your goals and your other options.

Basically, I haven't asked him yet if he would pay me any stipend when I working from here. So should I ask him about this?

If you want to know the answer now, then of course you should ask. Decide ahead of time how you will react to any answer.

Answer 6

I think that this is more of an Academic SE question than a Workplace SE question, and the two perspectives are going to have different answers. From a Workplace perspective, you were offered a position with particular terms. Your employer's motivation for offering those terms are of little relevance. However, for some of these amounts, it matters what the wording was. If a particular amount was set aside as a reimbursement for a plane tickets, then if you don't actually buy the tickets, then you aren't entitled to the money. But if the wording is such that the amount is merely motivated by travel expenses, rather than assigned to travel expenses, then you are.

From an Academic perspective, however, this is likely not viewed as a "job" exactly, and the stipend isn't so much a salary but a scholarship. The professor/university might feel that since the stipend is not paying for services rendered, but rather is to cover expenses, it should be adjusted. One big question is to what degree the individual professor is the one determining the amount of the stipend. A university or a particularly stingy professor might try to reduce the stipend, but I would be somewhat surprised. If the students are normally from the UK, they would still have UK level living expenses, and it would be in rather poor taste to reduce the stipends of just people from countries with lower costs of living.

If you're worried about it, you can ask the professor something like "How will my being remote affect the money budgeted for the position?"

Answer 7

So should I ask him about this?

No. Nein. нет! לא! 没有!!! 🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑

While not a proper job contract, you had an agreement, hopefully a written agreement, that you were paid 1400£ + flight reimbursement.

Enterpreneurs, as well as researchers, have to accept a business risk. The risk may come in their favour or hammer-fall onto their heads.

You still deserve the 1400£ because you have an existing agreement. But you won't be expecting any flight reimbursement because you won't be flying. You were lucky this time.

Probably your researcher will offer a very small stipend to the next researcher(s) from cheaper countries, who knows.

Of course, it would be extremely unprofessional to ask for flight reimbursements if you don't fly, e.g. I would be extremely upset if you wrote

Hi boss, I should have traveled 2 times a 1500£ flights. Why don't you give these to me in cash?

Additional reference with a counter example: I know a number of Ukrainians and everyone told me the same about IT professionals. Ukraine is a notably cheap country in Eastern Europe (read: where cost of life and consequent salaries are cheaper). IT professionals in that country are treated like rockstars*, because those educated and skilled enough to work for Western European countries remotely get a salary aligned with the standards of UA and not EU. This comes from years before the pandemic, when remote working was not mandatory

*This word might be exaggerated a bit