Suspension UvA-lecturer Laurens Buijs is valid, rules the court
The suspension of UvA lecturer Laurens Buijs was legal. His ‘cross-border communication’ does not fall under the whistleblower regulation, the court ruled Wednesday afternoon. The UvA is therefore not obliged to provide the requested protection.
The suspension of UvA lecturer Laurens Buijs is valid. This was the ruling of the Amsterdam court on Wednesday afternoon after Buijs filed summary proceedings against his employer.
Buijs ‘far exceeded’ the basic rules of conduct, the court ruled. ‘The manner in which the claimant went on the offensive against colleagues and directors went beyond all limits. He made personal attacks and highly offensive remarks, both in person and on Twitter.’
Whistleblower report
The (former) UvA lecturer invoked the whistleblower regulation because, in his own words, he reported a ‘wrongdoing’ at his faculty, the Faculty of Society and Behavior. There, he alleged, there was an "acute and fundamental threat to academic freedom.’
But ‘filing a whistleblower report is not a license for misconduct,’ reads the ruling.
In doing so, the court follows the argument of labor law professor Evert Verhulp, who previously expressed himself in almost identical terms in Folia. ‘After all, reporting wrongdoing is not a license to subsequently behave improperly as an employee,’ Verhulp said at the time. An employer may act on that, on the grounds of ‘disturbed labor relations.’
‘Things may get hot,’ the court said, ‘but in terms of topics, not people.’ It was striking that Buijs had already expressed regret for his behavior during the summary proceedings. He realized that his "retaliatory impulse had gone too far."
‘Big scandal’
The verdict has hit Buijs hard. He calls it a ‘big scandal’ and says: ‘The judge completely went along with the UvA's line of argumentation and showed zero introspection about what really happened. Everything the UvA did to me: the dehumanization, the behavior of UvA administrators, the students who issued a trigger warning, the colleagues and friends I lost - the judge ignored it all.’
He does not intend to stop there. ‘For now, the UvA has succeeded and all the wokies can laugh. I have been caught and trampled to the ground, but I will appeal in any case,’ Buijs says. ‘If only to hear what a higher judge thinks of my argument, because this judge didn't say anything at all about it.’
