HBO teacher loses lawsuit against Fontys over copyright
A college teacher has lost a lawsuit from her former employer Fontys. She claimed the copyright of a collection of exercises she had made in her own time.
Picture: Type tank
Lecturers must make good agreements with their employer if they perform extra work. That is the conclusion drawn by union director Douwe van der Zweep from de Algemene Onderwijsbond (AOb) from a judgment against a college teacher.
The teacher and a colleague wanted to improve the practice material and the assignments for the technology subject. They estimate that they would each have 100 hours of extra work, but the then director of the training did not want to give those hours.
Lecturers must make good agreements with their employer if they perform extra work
Anyway by
They went ahead with it anyway and compiled two bundles of exercises that they and other colleagues in the department had made. According to the teacher, she did this 'entirely on her own initiative', 'with her own resources' and 'in her own time'.
When Fontys later suggested to the teacher to make the bundles available digitally, she was willing to cooperate, but she did not agree to the conditions. In July 2020, Fontys nevertheless put a new bundle of chemical technology assignments online in which large parts of the teacher's text had been copied.
The now former teacher went to the judge. She claimed the copyright of the bundle and demanded that Fontys withdraw the digital bundle. In addition, she wanted compensation of at least ten thousand euros and a rectification on the homepage of the Fontys website.
The teacher claimed the copyright of the bundle, demanded compensation and a rectification
core task
But Fontys believes that it is part of the core task of a teacher in salary scale 11 to provide inspiring and interactive education, to design learning arrangements and to draw up research assignments. And that's how the judge sees it.
According to be the verdict performed the duties of the lecturer in the context of her position. The fact that she did this largely in her spare time and that Fontys did not commission it, apparently does not alter this.
The judge refers to the Copyright Act which stipulates that the copyright rests with the person in whose service the work was done
The judge further refers to the Copyright Act, which stipulates that copyright rests with the person in whose service the work has been done, 'unless otherwise agreed between the parties'.
It shows how important it is for a teacher to make clear agreements in advance with the study programme, says AObdirector Van der Zweep. “Otherwise you get this kind of vagueness.”
AObMembers can contact our legal staff for legal questions. Become a member!
