My young friend went on contract for a year, doing fishery research. After a few months they said "We aren't going to pay you any more. You can't leave because the boat won't come back until {whenever}. And if you say anything, we won't give you the recommendation you need as a young researcher doing a PhD."
She had to stay for months working for nothing. It's slavery, and they know it, and that's how it works.
Don't go.
The horror stories of things they endure would fill hundreds of volumes. One told me another prof just stole her dissertation topic, and she lost two years. Innumerable others get caught in academic politics because another prof doesn't like theirs.
As many people say below, being a whistleblower brings a heavy personal cost, and no one should say "you should publicize this" without being aware of that.
The ratio of people that can make a living doing research to people that are entering PhD programs is way, way off, which naturally produces a zero-sum hypercompetition "market" among PhD students that can only end in "success" by people able and willing to work crazy hard for no money for years on end - aka the already-rich, the desperate true believers, the delusional, or some combination of those three.
To make things worse, all the money in universities is being sucked up by the explosion of the self-licking ice cream cone of middle management catering to the "student experience" or whatever else.
Look up the absolute explosion of management salaries in universities in the last 20 years.
That's criminal, and it's worrying you're justifying it under an account named "Workaccount2"
And after their hold on her was over, she should have screamed to the hills.
While I get the reluctance, at the same time, not yelling about it means others get burned.
That's just plain wrong.
I recommend against it in almost all cases for people I care about, because people have this natural infatuation for victims that is obviously prurient (whether it's love, reverence, hate, or even disgust) and you yourself are going to end up the center of the storm.
If they decide to do it anyway because they're better people than me. I try to make sure they don't do it stupidly, and work with them on a careful plan that minimizes their personal danger and has the best chance of succeeding.
A PhD student is hostage against the system.
Sounds like she should wait until after she gets her phd, then scream. And, while leveling accusations at the professor too.
He's as guilty as they are.
Don't let time, let scum win.
Yes, you may save others but I cant blame someone for makinf the pragmatic choice for their lives and family.
She's now an officer in my son's startup.