National trade unions ‘livid about’ situation at TU Delft

While the trade unions recognise that there is ‘a long way to go on social safety at TU Delft’, they believe that the AD article (in Dutch) raises ‘serious questions about the current action plan’s chance of success’.

They believe that is because of the ‘direct involvement of the members of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board in the lack of a socially safe culture’. The trade unions say that since the article was published on 1 June, they have received dozens of reactions from concerned TU Delft employees, and in particular over the role of Rector Magnificus Tim van der Hagen.

Official complaint

A spokesperson explains that the press release in which this is stated comes from the national CNV, FNV, AOb and FBZ trade unions and was intended to support their local departments. CNV, FNV and AOb have local representatives at TU Delft. When asked, the local Chair, Fred Veer, points out the key passage in the AD article meant by ‘direct involvement’.

This refers to a conflict with the Director of Finance a few years ago. This case was described in a section of the Executive Board’s response to the Inspectorate report that was not thoroughly blacked out that Delta has also had access to since 1 March. At the time, Delta decided not to write about this and other specific cases in the blacked out sections because of traceability.

‘Perpetrators must be prevented from causing further damage’

AD claims that the blacked out sections state that according to TU Delft administrators many financial staff members left because of the anxiety that the Director is said to have caused. But the newspaper also notes that the Director had submitted an official complaint ‘on the grounds of integrity violations’. The Supervisory Board then declared the complaint inadmissible, after which the Director left TU Delft and filed several lawsuits.

Damage 

The national trade unions demand clarity about how the lack of social safety is being dealt with in their press release. That there are concerns about this transpires from a letter from the local trade unions to the Executive Board, that Delta has access to. The letter shows that they are critical about the action plan, which is officially called the ‘plan for change’. After a few positive comments about the change in culture at the beginning and the fact that ‘many fora’ were able to give their input, it points to several gaps.

One of these is the lack of a baseline measurement about the situation of social safety. This is needed to measure the effect of a new policy. They also repeat that the victims should be acknowledged and compensated. They believe that an ‘independent external point of contact’ needs to be established for victims to report incidents and that assesses the damage they have experienced. And above all, the national trade unions say that ‘perpetrators must be prevented from causing further damage’.

Assessments

The local trade unions have an idea about this last point. In their letter they refer to the example of the Innovation & Impact Centre (I&IC), which Delta and later the NRC and AD newspapers wrote about. In their view, this case exemplifies mistakes made in the recruitment and selection procedure, while in 2023 they had already warned about ‘the need for a more thorough selection procedure based on individual assessments’. They do not see this reflected in the plan for change.

It now turns out that they want to even go a step further. ‘Current personnel that play a key role in social safety’ should also undergo an assessment, say the trade unions. ‘We believe that this is necessary to guarantee the credibility of the TU Delft management among personnel during the multi-year change management process that lies ahead of us.’

The national trade unions ‘wish for’ a ‘sufficiently substantive response’ from the Executive Board and Supervisory Board to the local trade unions. ‘If this is not given, the unions expect that the personnel will have absolutely no faith in improvement.’ The local trade unions will meet with the Executive Board on 24 June. The subject will then be discussed. A spokesperson said that the Executive Board will then respond.