Court of Appeal upholds dismissal of MBO teacher Van Manen
The Arnhem-Leeuwarden Court of Appeal upholds the dismissal of Paula van Manen on the grounds of a 'disrupted employment relationship'. The teacher does receive an extra allowance of 40.000 euros because the employer Roc Nijmegen suspended her too soon.
Image: cut-out of the cover of the book
The employment relationship has been disrupted to such an extent that recovery of the contract is 'not reasonable', said the Court. 'Especially because of the way in which she portrayed and described some of her colleagues in the book, the teacher deeply hurt colleagues. She should have realized that this would make cooperation with various colleagues more difficult', the court summarizes it. She is also charged with disclosing 'company-sensitive information' (namely: a financial loss in 2018 by the team). According to the court, the teacher's freedom of expression was not at stake. 'That she has it is beyond dispute and that Roc Nijmegen has not restricted it is also established, according to the court.'
This suspension is damaging to the teacher
With the extra compensation of 40.000 euros - in addition to the regular transition compensation - the court deviates from an earlier ruling by the subdistrict court. According to the court, the school board acted 'seriously culpable' by resorting too quickly to the severe measure of suspension in the turmoil following the publication of the book. 'This suspension is damaging to the teacher and in fact stood in the way of any solution other than termination of the employment contract.' Nevertheless, according to the Court, the employment relationship would have ended in any case because of the disturbed relationships, at most a year later. Partly for this reason, the compensation is much lower than the minimum of 90.000 that Van Manen requested.
Subdistrict court
Van Manen appealed against one pronunciation of the Nijmegen subdistrict court, which last summer gave the school board permission to fire her because of a 'disturbed employment relationship'. The contract was terminated on 1 October last year.
Paula van Manen, teacher and member of the works council, was appointed at the beginning of December 2019 suspended after being anonymized book had published about the introduction of personalized education in her own pedagogical training: a personal story about the impact on teachers and students who were struggling with educational innovation.
According to the school board, some employees were recognized behind the pseudonyms
The ROC management was not happy with the publication and argued that the teacher should have raised the criticism internally. According to the school board, some staff members had been recognized behind the pseudonyms and felt their trust was violated. An attempt at mediation came to nothing.
Of the three grounds put forward by the school board for her dismissal, the court only upheld the "disturbed employment relationship." The subdistrict court also ruled that the lecturer 'is bound to discretion and loyalty, even if she believed that there was an abuse within ROC'.
“Disappointing”, Van Manens lawyer Wouter Pors responds to the outcome of the appeal. “The freedom of expression is now being pushed aside a bit by the Court with the consideration that a number of colleagues feel hurt. It seems important to me that it should be possible to write down how educational reforms work out in practice. I think it is now up to politicians to better protect the position of teachers in this. ”
