Today, the university held a meeting for its employees. The Executive Board wanted to avoid that employees would only learn about the report when news about it appeared in the media, writes TU Delft’s university magazine Delta.
Moreover, the university even published the report before the Inspectorate put it on its website. This is unusual, but the Executive Board apparently did not want to wait until the critical report came out.
Neglected
The report states that ‘care for employees is being neglected’. “This does not concern isolated incidents, but is part of a pattern where the neglect of care can persist.” The Inspectorate alleges mismanagement in the area of social safety. “These findings give the Inspectorate cause for great concern.”
Employees are afraid to report problems, the Executive Board is failing to take action, shortcomings in HR policy persist and the Supervisory Board is likewise failing its duties in this area, the report says.
Following a call to report issues, the Inspectorate received 148 reports from employees about social insecurity. These mainly concerned all kinds of forms of bullying and harassment, including shouting, threatening with consequences and rude remarks. Exclusion and sexism also occurred. Sixteen employees reported racism.
“Unsound”
The Executive Board and the Supervisory Board criticise the quality of the investigation. In a response to the report, the university stated: “TU Delft does not want to make light of the findings, but notes that the underlying investigation by the Inspectorate is unsound.”
The university alleges the report contains ‘inaccurate, incomplete and unsubstantiated or poorly substantiated accusations’ against the university, certain employees and Executive Board members and claims the damage from this is unacceptable.
Therefore, the university believes the report contravenes ‘the principles of legality, legal certainty and due care, as well as those of proportionality’ and that these are grounds for challenging the report in court.
When asked about this, a spokesperson of the Inspectorate said the university could have already taken legal action beforehand. The university could have requested the court to block the publication of the report. “They apparently chose not to do so.”
Finances
In its investigation, the Inspectorate also looked at the university’s finances, which newspaper NRC recently reported on. However, the Inspectorate does not believe that any financial mismanagement or misappropriation of funds occurred. “We did, however, find that the Executive Board, the Audit Committee and the Supervisory Board did not have a clear picture of the financial magnitude and risks (…) for TU Delft as a whole”, the report states.
