Director of Belgium Museum of Fine Arts Accused of Harassing Employees

Michel Draguet, director of the Belgium Museum of Great Arts in Brussels, has been accused of generating inappropriate reviews to staff. According to the Brussels Periods, 6 previous or present staffers variously alleged that he experienced made racist, sexist, or homophobic remarks to them. Belgian news web-site RBTF final 7 days posted an open letter from thirty-6 of the museum’s 176 staff decrying what they forged as a harmful get the job done lifestyle fostered by Dragnet.

Among the the allegations leveled from the director by his staffers are that he has engaged in “flirty” behavior that created his workers come to feel unpleasant that he displays an unwillingness to collaborate that he has resisted tries to integrate inclusive language in institutional correspondence and that he insults his staff, with 1 nameless source noting that he “described a former interaction manager as saying that she experienced the intelligence of a vagina.” Draguet is also said to usually yell at or intimidate workforce. This past criticism was recurring to the Brussels Times by quite a few of his college students at the Free University of Brussels, where he is a professor of art and archaeology, with just one pupil expressing panic about speaking about cultural appropriation with him.

Draguet has denied all the earlier mentioned allegations, noting that the use of inclusive language is not a “legal obligation.” “I do not stop staff members from employing it in their very own correspondence,” he explained, “but for the sake of equilibrium with the Dutch language—and out of personalized conviction, which is still a basic right—I do not want to see it utilized to museum conversation.” About accusations in relationship with feminist and colonialist challenges, he responded, “Royal Museums are a scientific institution and not just one of activism. We operate objectively as taught by the scientific dynamic.”

Following a December 19 assembly between museum managers, unionized team, and Empreva, the Exterior Support for Prevention and Protection at Work, it was determined that Empreva would get a private study prior to arriving at any motion. Draguet is explained to be likely forward with his software for a fourth time period in the role of director.

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