Former photo museum director wins €400K in unfair dismissal case

A court has ordered the Nederlandse Fotomuseum to pay €400,000 to its former managing director, Birgit Donker, and publish an apology after deciding she was unfairly dismissed.

Donker was suspended last June, and later sacked, following allegations that a culture of fear and social insecurity had emerged under her leadership since she took up the post in 2018.

The Volkskrant newspaper published a reconstruction of the investigation by the museum’s supervisory board that led to her dismissal, in which employees described a “poisonous working environment” and “toxic management”. Others labelled Donker “narcissistic” and said the atmosphere at work was “unsafe”.

The journalistic standards watchdog Raad van de Journalistiek ruled following a complaint that the use of those terms was not justified on the basis of the evidence in the article.

The court went further, ruling that Donker was not responsible for a culture of fear or a lack of safety. It also dismissed a claim that she had failed to inform the supervisory board about social safety concerns and staff turnover.

Decisive measures

Donker told the court she had had to take decisive measures to deal with the museum’s poor financial situation and organisational problems. She rejected the claim that she had kept the board in the dark about personnel issues and said it had praised the progress she made.

The court said the museum was more professionally run as a result of Donker’s management and she had successfully overseen a relocation to a new building.

The board had acted in a “severely reproachable fashion” by dismissing her, having never previously raised concerns about how she performed her role.

It was ordered to pay her two years’ wages, amounting to €400,000 and publish a correction on its website saying the board had been “too hasty in moving to suspend Donker”.

Donker said she was relieved by the judgment and the order to publish a correction. “I love art and culture and I am very glad that I can focus my efforts on the sector again,” she said.

The museum said it was “disappointed” but would not appeal against the judgment, “in the interests of the future of the museum and to close an episode that has weighed heavily on the organisation and all those concerned”.