Employed by a letterbox employer
Work at Fontys and discover after a while that you are not employed by the university of applied sciences, but with an employer that only exists on paper. It happened to Ida Spee and 800 others who are on the payroll at the Ooet foundation.
Picture: Fred van Diem
I feel discarded, put aside as an expense. ” Ida Spee (61) is alternately angry and sad. Just before Christmas she did her last shift at the media library of the Fontys teacher training courses in Tilburg. She worked there as an on-call worker, she calls it a substitute herself. Sometimes she worked 20 hours in a week, but there were also weeks when she was not called at all. She had no problem with that. "I am very flexible."
Although she is overqualified for the work at the multimedia library, she would have liked to continue for a few more years. “I really enjoy working with students and I have great colleagues. But I have been a substitute for two years and now I have to take six months off, otherwise they have to give me a permanent contract. My successor has already been appointed. I will be exchanged for a new on-call worker. ”
Ida Spee knew that she would be given a temporary appointment when she signed her employment contract two years ago. Also that she would be deployed a maximum of 300 clock hours per year and had no guarantee that she would be able to work those hours. The job at the multimedia library therefore did not offer much certainty. But Spee thought she could grow into a real job once she got into the large college that employs over 4700 people. That is why she also agreed to the gross hourly wage of 11,16 euros, which is based on the legal minimum wage. While her permanent media library colleagues are at least in scale 6.
Spee is originally a primary school teacher and followed a free course at the teacher training courses of Fontys. "A communicative variant." She made a good living for twenty years as an independent lyricist. “I was able to charge 80, 90 euros per hour, but the crisis made it go wrong and I took a job. First at a gas station and then at the public library. ”
Cuts
She was happy at the library, but due to the cutbacks, there was no permanent appointment after three temporary contacts. While she had counted on that, because her reviews were good. She panicked a bit and wasn't paying attention when she signed her new employment contract with Fontys. “I wanted to go back to work too badly,” she thinks afterwards. As a result, she did not realize that she was not being employed by Fontys, but with a letterbox employer that only exists on paper.
Not surprising, because Spee received a Fontys employee card, a Fontys address, declared her hours worked at the P&O Service Center of the university college and received confirmation emails with the Fontys logo. Only her salary specifications show that she was not employed by the university of applied sciences, but by the Foundation for Research and Development Services Eindhoven / Tilburg, Ooet for short. The foundation has a logo and a PO box, but a telephone number or e-mail address is missing on the salary slip.
What it means to be on the payroll with Ooet instead of Fontys, slowly dawned on us. Spee and her two on-call colleagues at the media library are not really part of it. "We were not invited to team meetings, I did not have a professionalization plan and I never had a performance review."
Worst of all, an Ooet contract turned out not to be a stepping stone to a real job. “All doors remained closed,” Spee discovered. A job as an internship supervisor in the sports marketing program passed her nose when the program management heard that she had an Ooet contract. An Ooet employee is only allowed to work 400 clock hours a year for Fontys and the lion's share of that is already consuming the media library. That is why she was unable to work as a workshop trainer at her own media library.
It was already clear in advance that I would be thrown out after two years, that is what affects me the most
Spee then responded to a 'real job' at the media library of the art schools. “There I was told that the vacancy was only open to internal candidates and I was an external one because I was employed by Ooet. Only then did it dawn on me that you have no rights as an Ooet'er. That I wouldn't get the chance to show what I'm worth. It was certain in advance that I would be fired after two years. That affects me the most. ”
False construction
The Ooet foundation was founded almost 25 years ago to carry out 'research and development work in the field of health and nutrition', according to the registration with the Chamber of Commerce. The board of the foundation consists of the three members of the Fontys Executive Board. Annual figures have never been filed. Anja Klomps, director p & o of Fontys admits that Ooet exists in name only. Ooet does not have its own staff bureau or office. "We do the administration." Klomps does not know how Ooet became Fontys's internal payroll organization.
A P&O inventory carried out this spring shows that over 2016 flex workers were on the payroll at Ooet in 800. Together they occupy 159 full-time jobs. This involved 14,7 million euros, almost 5 percent of Fontys's total personnel expenditure. Ooet contracts are only intended for employees who carry out short-term projects and on-call workers who do irregular work. In addition to Ooet'ers, Fontys also employs temporary employees who are employed by the university and are covered by the collective labor agreement. This concerns about 400 full-time jobs.
Klomps emphasizes that the Ooet construction will not be disadvantageous for flex workers. “Other universities of applied sciences also use payroll constructions, but they usually work with a commercial employment agency. We do it ourselves, which means we don't have to spend any education money on commercial payroll companies. ”
Ooet is a sham construction that is used to pass on unemployment risks
Trade unions and the Central Participation Council have a different view. “Ooet is a sham construction that is used to pass off unemployment risks,” says AObdistrict manager Jan Dijkstra. “Universities of applied sciences carry their own risk, they pay the unemployment benefit for temporary employees who do not receive a permanent appointment after two years. But they find that too expensive at Fontys. By appointing flex workers via Ooet, Fontys avoids the unemployment benefit costs. ”
Dichotomy
The central participation council of Fontys finds it particularly difficult that “colleagues who do the same work as Fontys employees are placed with Ooet”, says Mattie Wethlij, chairman of the personnel section of the council. “Ooet colleagues are not covered by the collective labor agreement, while they often do the same work. We want to get rid of that dichotomy. ”
The council was therefore pleased with the crowbar that the unions presented last year. “We demanded that Ooet get a works council. This is required by law, because there are more than fifty employees, ”says AObdirector Dijkstra. The Executive Board then asked the council to act as a participation body for Ooet. The council refused.
It was the last push Fontys needed to decide to dismantle the controversial construction. Social opposition to the flexibilisation of the labor market and tighter laws and regulations had already led to a growing awareness that the Ooet construction was no longer tenable. At the beginning of 2017, the Executive Board therefore decided to 'phase out the collaboration with the Ooet Foundation'.
But in November, the board reverted to that decision. The staff services had meanwhile calculated that an 'alternative interpretation of the flexibility requirement' would cost an extra 3,4 million euros per year, good for 25 to 40 full-time jobs. Hiring Ooet employees who work a fixed number of hours per week at the university of applied sciences is estimated to be 11 percent more expensive. And hiring on-call workers through a commercial payroll company is 37 percent more expensive.
According to Anja Klomps, that is the only workable alternative. Although the HBO collective labor agreement offers possibilities to appoint on-call workers, once they fall under the collective labor agreement, flex workers can make use of professionalization hours, voluntary care leave and reduced working hours for seniors. Appraisal interviews should also be held with all 800 on-call workers. “That does not really fit with the activities at stake,” says Klomps. The Executive Board therefore only wants to partially dismantle Ooet. Temporary employees who work a fixed number of hours per week are 'covered by the collective labor agreement', as Fontys calls it. But the Ooet construction will be maintained for on-call workers who do incidental work. This is allowed for a maximum of 400 hours per year and the P&O department will check closely whether it really concerns incidental work.
Ooeters are just colleagues who should be employed by Fontys.
Mattie Wethlij of the Central Participation Council believes that this is the right step for the Executive Board. “Ooet people who work a fixed number of hours for Fontys are just colleagues. They do structural work, there are teachers who work full-time. They should be employed by Fontys. On-call workers are a completely different story. The majority of these are security guards and they are often already retired. They have aow and supplement their pension. Or they are students who are involved in open days. There is of course a need for flexible staff. And that does not have to be hired from me through an expensive employment agency. ”
Indifference
You can tell from everything that Fontys only looks at costs, ”says Jan Dijkstra. “Temporary employees are a cost item, they are very open about that. Last year it was decided to dismantle Ooet completely. But now it has been calculated that it will cost a few million extra, that intention has been abandoned. While Fontys has plenty of money, they always had millions left over in recent years. ” Dijkstra continues to oppose the sham construction, also because he fears that structural work will become incidental work if Ooet appointments continue to exist. Because the distinction between the two is very, very thin.
There is nothing incidental about the raid work at the media library, says Ida Spee. “It is just structural work that is carried out at irregular times by three on-call workers who are each deployable for 300 hours a year. We did not manage 900 hours a year, but the three of us occupied at least half a job. Fontys is simply looking for employees for whom they do not have to take any responsibility. ”
That has dire consequences for the working climate, says Spee. She has often been told by her permanent colleagues that what Fontys does is not correct. “But they say to me: That's the way it is, Ida, you can't do anything about it. They think that they cannot exert any influence and have become indifferent. ”
“That's what you get when administrators only look at what is financially useful and not at what it does to people to be dismissed after two years. You breed indifference and acidification with that, ”says Spee. "But Fontys apparently doesn't think that is important."
(this article was published in the Education Magazine of January 2018)
