Photo Brand Portal WUR The decentral Works Councils are to have advisory rights on the development of the Strategic Accommodation Plan, the Executive Board has told the central WUR Council.
In the Strategic Accommodation Plan, the Executive Board outlines how WUR wil ensure sufficient work stations on the campus for growing numbers of staff. The WUR Council emphasizes that working at home and sharing desks should be options but not compulsory. The Council does not want staff to be required to work at home on certain days.
The WUR Council has advisory and voting rights with regard to the Strategic Accommodation Plan, in which the principles guiding the future design of the workplace are to be formulated. This plan has to be based on decentralized accommodation plans, on which staff have a say. The WUR Council demands that the decentral Works Councils get the opportunity to assess these plans made by the Science Groups. Hitherto, they only gave ‘implementation advice’ but now their advisory rights mean they can propose changes to the plans. ‘The Works Councils of the decentral groups will get advisory rights with regard to the outline Accommodation Plan insofar as it is about their future working environment,’ Executive Board member Rens Buchwaldt has written to the WUR Council.
‘We want to make sure that staff who feel pressured into working at home will also still be heard.’
WUR council chair Jelle Behagel
Buchwaldt agrees to an evaluation of the plan within a few years because, he says, ‘the Strategic Accommodation Plan makes a lot of assumptions on issues on which it is difficult to predict now what will happen in reality.’ The Executive Board is also establishing a Monitoring Group, Working@WUR, which will keep an eye on progress with and adoption of hybrid working at WUR.
The Executive Board met with the WUR Council on 10 November but the two bodies did not reach an agreement, says WUR Council chair Jelle Behagel. ‘We want more concessions on monitoring and evaluation. We want to make sure that staff who feel pressured into working at home will also still be heard.’ The sharing of desks needs thoughtful implementation too, says Behagel. ‘In theory, staff will share their desks but exceptions are possible.’
