New investigation by the Labour Inspectorate at TU Delft and other universities

The Labour Inspectorate is preparing for a new round of inspections at fourteen universities. This should start in the second quarter. That is what a spokesperson answers to questions from Delta.

The renewed investigation was announced in 2024 after a hard report was published. There was no start date at the time. The report stated that university staff suffer massively from high work pressure and undesirable behaviour and that the universities have not been able to improve this for years, despite repeated investigations by the inspectorate.

Survey

From the second quarter, the inspectors will visit the universities again, just like in 2023. Then, they interviewed staff representatives and confidential counsellors. In addition, they analyzed occupational health and safety documents. An online survey was also held among the academic and teaching staff that was completed nine thousand times.

There may now be another survey, the spokesperson says, but also for support staff. The 2023 survey showed a shocking picture of work pressure and undesirable behaviour. For example, more than 70 percent of the respondents experienced more than occasional stress as a result of work pressure. 54 percent had to deal with undesirable behaviour in the past two years; 69 percent had witnessed it. At the time, the inspectorate declared these results also applicable to support staff. A new questionnaire could substantiate whether that was true.

No problem analysis

In addition to a general report on work pressure and undesirable behaviour at fourteen universities, there were sub-reports for each university, including from TU Delft. According to the inspectorate, TU Delft, like the rest, did not comply with the Working Conditions Act. It did take measures to combat high work pressure and undesirable behaviour, but these were often not based on problem analyses. There was also no insight into the effectiveness. And that while 37 percent of employees turned out to have an increased risk of burnout.

In May 2024, the Executive Board said it would take the results of the study ‘to heart’. It was already in the middle of improving social safety because the Education Inspectorate had found mismanagement a few months earlier when it came to social safety and the care for employees. At the end of January, an amended social safety action plan has been submitted to the Education Inspectorate. He is now also conducting research at TU Delft again.

Plan of action

TU Delft promised a separate plan to reduce the workload. A spokesperson says that there is now a ‘central plan of action’ that has resulted from the latest employee monitor. That plan is now before the Works Council and therefore cannot yet be shared with Delta. Decentralised plans are also in the making, according to the spokesperson.

The question of how TU Delft will curb the workload is even more pressing now that millions of euros in cuts are coming. Both the Works Council and the local trade unions warn of an increasing rather than decreasing workload. For example, at some faculties it is no longer allowed to hire student assistants, vacancies are no longer filled as standard in several places and forced redundancies are not ruled out in the long term.

Choices

The local trade unions drew attention to this during a meeting with the Executive Board on Monday 17 February. Board member Marien van der Meer saw no other solution than to make choices. “We can’t do the same or more with fewer people than we do now.” However, she does think that work can be done more efficiently in some places. “I know that the directors within the university service are preparing for that.”