UvA researchers Breetvelt and Täuber crack down on ‘disturbed working relationship’ grounds for dismissal

As a boss, if you create a socially unsafe situation in the workplace, a ‘disrupted working relationship’ is created as a valid reason for dismissal. This is the ideal solution to get rid of an ‘undesirable employee.’ This is the conclusion of UvA researcher and psychologist Iris Breetvelt and Susanne Täuber - recently made guest researcher at the UvA - in an opinion piece on the higher education platform ScienceGuide. According to them, this ‘perverse incentive’ undermines ‘an effective approach to addressing social insecurity.’

Täuber's fierce criticism of (the unethical use of) the grounds for dismissal for a ‘disturbed working relationship’ does not come out of the blue. She was previously fired as an associate professor at the University of Groningen (RUG) based on the same challenged legal rule. She subsequently found ‘scientific shelter at the political sociology section of the UvA,’ Folia noted.

The opinion piece can be seen as a new step in her fight against her former employer after the subdistrict court ruled in favor of the RUG earlier this year. According to the judge, Täuber was legitimately dismissed, although ‘the RUG played an important, if not, decisive role in creating the seriously disturbed employment relationship.’ That finding sparked resistance from Breetvelt and Täuber, according to their opinion piece in ScienceGuide. Namely, they want ‘the question of blame to be included in the assessment framework for the dismissal decision.’

Laurens Buijs

Another person who also recently had to deal with an appeal to a ‘disturbed working relationship’ is (former) UvA lecturer Laurens Buijs. His coarse statements to colleagues were reason enough for the UvA to suspend him. Buijs believes this was a way for the UvA to distract attention from his ‘whistleblower report’ about ‘radicalizing woke ideology’ at the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences and says his remarks were the result of the university's own actions. The court disagreed with his argument and vindicated the UvA.

The opinion piece by Breetvelt and Täuber could thus - not entirely unexpectedly - count on his approval. ‘Good that Susanne Täuber is now at the UvA,’ he responded via Twitter. ‘This is an important message for administrators at social sciences and especially for the gender and sexuality network.’