NPO presents plan for better social safety, Hamer ‘hopeful but concerned’

The NPO presented the long-awaited plan on Wednesday to improve social safety in the workplace. The plan follows the report of the Van Rijn Commission, which spent months investigating unacceptable behavior within public broadcasting and concluded that unacceptable behavior is widespread at the NPO.

According to Mariëtte Hamer, government commissioner for sexual misconduct and sexual violence, the plan to create a safer work culture is hopeful, but not yet concrete enough. She wrote this on Wednesday in a letter to outgoing State Secretary Fleur Gräper-van Koolwijk (Culture and Media, D66), reports the ANP news agency. Hamer writes that much is still needed to bring about a real cultural change at the broadcaster. “I am hopeful, but worried at the same time. And if we look at the recent past, there is still resistance to be resolved.” In addition, Hamer lacks a ‘stick behind the door’. “What if the plans are not developed sufficiently?”

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Broadcasters own plan

Much of the NPO’s plan was leaked earlier this month after RTL News obtained it. It then became clear that the plan states that broadcasting bosses can stay in office for a maximum of ten years and that presenters must be better supervised. There will also be a code of conduct and a special committee for victims of inappropriate behavior who can no longer or do not want to go to work.

Hamer states in her letter that it is important that broadcasters within the public system also make their own plans, following on from the overarching plan. “They will have to involve employees at all levels to arrive at a good approach. The NPO can play an important connecting role in this, but it must also play a more active role.”

In response, Gräper informed the House of Representatives that the Media Authority must issue a report every six months on social safety at the NPO.

In the coming weeks it should become clear whether the NPO and the broadcasters are able to transform the underlying culture of fear “into a safe culture of interaction,” Hamer writes. Next summer, Hamer will present the second part of her reflection on the plan, based on conversations she will have at the public broadcaster in the near future.

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