Vilnius Academy of Arts – scandal over possible psychological harassment Culture

M. Urbonavičius claims that in April he filed a harassment complaint with the VDA board. The complaint was also signed by Diedr’s project manager, Giedrė Kasparavičienė, and former project manager, Justina Kažemėkaitytė.

The VDA board did not find any violations and management cites the violation of the Labor Code as the reason for the dismissal of the director of the DIC.

Fired for violating the labor code

After contacting VDA administration, 15 minutes received a reply that this year. March 19 M. Urbonavičius reported a violation of his duties due to improper performance of his duties, and he was fired on June 23. after three serious repeated breaches of duty.

According to M.Urbanavičius, after filing a harassment complaint, his employees were fired and finally himself: “I submitted a harassment complaint to the VAA Council, the Seimas Committee, the Ministry of Education and Science and the VAA Senate. My employees were fired in the first place or their contracts were not renewed, and in the end I was fired as well. “

“They accuse me of not cooperating in the mobbing, but when I ask for data, nobody provides it,” said the former director of DIC.

VDA management denied that other DIC employees had been fired.

“DEC 2020 had 2 full-time employees, 8 people were working on the VAA project“ Development of the Design Innovation Center of the Vilnius Academy of Arts ”implemented by DEC. S. metro. May 30 the project was completed in the that employees worked under project employment contracts.

The Center currently has 2 full-time staff members: a temporary director and a project director.

Today, 16 people work on the new DIC project “Promotion of Competence Centers: Entrepreneurship Program of the Vilnius Academy of Arts” in the same field, 4 of them worked on the previous project with M. Urbanavičius. New project work contracts have been concluded with them. Currently, the Center has 2 full-time employees: a temporary manager and a project manager, ”VAA management explained in the comment.

The leadership of the Vilnius Academy of Arts regrets that there was no constructive and professional dialogue with M. Urbanavičius. The same former director of the DIC does not agree with this decision and will seek legal redress.

Higher education institutions decide independently

At that time, the SMS response says:

“The Law of Sciences and Studies establishes the autonomy of higher education institutions, which includes academic, administrative, economic and financial management activities based on the principle of self-government and academic freedom. Therefore, higher education institutions independently solve problems related to the relationship between management and employees, the ministry does not have the authority to deal with such disputes.

ŠMSM informed Mr. Urbanavičius in writing after receiving his complaint.

In accordance with said law, there is a dispute resolution commission in higher education institutions. This commission resolves disputes between students and the administration or other employees related to research and study activities. ŠMSM informed Mr. Urbanavičius in writing after receiving his complaint. The Ministry’s reply to M. Urbanavičius also provided information on the possibility of exercising the worker’s rights enshrined in the Labor Code. “

The VAA Ethics Commission found no violations

The complaint submitted by M. Urbanavičius to the Council of the Vilnius Academy of Arts, the Education and Science Committee of the Seimas and the Ministry of Education and Science was referred to the Council for examination.

He appealed to the VDA Ethics Commission to instruct it to investigate the psychological harassment experienced by the head of the DIC.

The commission chaired by Marius Pranas Šaliamoras, Dean of the Vilnius Faculty, after examining the complaint and interviewing both parties, concluded that M. Urbanavičius’s complaint was unfounded and that he had not been harassed.

“After examining the annexes to the complaint on harassment presented by M. Urbanavičius, Director of the VAA DIC Director, the Education and Science Committee of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania and the Ministry of Education and Science, the accusations of harassment and obstruction of DIC’s activities and defamation were not confirmed. “

It was established that the VAA management persons named in the complaint communicated with total naturalness, responsibility and did not violate the provisions of the ethics commission.

According to the former director, the Board of Appeal did not consider in principle:

“I filed a complaint for psychological harassment by the VDA management. The complaint consisted of 10 pages and 30 additional documents and he hoped it would at least somehow stop. The matter was referred to the Ethics Committee and it ruled that the complaints did not turn out to be in order. And the council doubled down on this decision and announced it to the Senate. It’s like I realized that basically no one was considering the complaint. The complaint did not refer to ethics, but to management issues that were addressed to some people and established specific situations with supporting documents ”.

Claim the pressure has begun

Mr. Urbonavičius claimed that as soon as the complaint was filed, his employees were pressured the next day and asked to prove that the signatures of the signatories were authentic.

My lawyer was threatened to appeal to him.

“We write the complaint and the next day they receive a letter that the investigation has started and you have to explain if your signatures are real. And the people who appear in the complaint started an investigation, began to pressure, threatened my lawyer with suing him, ”said the former director.

The president of the ethics commission said that during the investigation, the person belonging to the commission mentioned in the complaint was excluded from the investigation and was questioned about possible psychological harassment. Before the Senate session, M. Urbonavičius’s lawyer sent a complaint filed to all its members. Therefore, MPŠaliamor pointed out that such sending of documents from a lawyer to the addresses of all members of the Senate is an unacceptable interference in the activities of the Senate, which does not agree with the procedure for submitting documents to the Senate.

According to MPŠaliamor, the complaint stemmed from criticism and discussions about improving the performance of the DIC, which the former director treated as pressure and harassment.

According to him, the discussion with M. Urbanavičius about the activities of the center took place for several years on two main topics: “about the cooperation with the curricula and about the participation of the academy staff in the research, there was a constant discussion that we don’t need stellar researchers, but we need to grow those people ourselves and then have that experience that we can then pass on to students and develop a chain of management. But such a working discussion lasted quite a long time and there really were all kinds of meetings and individual speeches, and in this letter they turned into harassment, pressure and obstruction of the activities of the DIC ”.

Highest staff turnover among VAA departments

Based on 2007 VDA statistics. The operating unit had the highest staff turnover in 2008-2018 alone. 16 employees changed, left or were laid off.

According to MPSaliamor, the VAA leadership tried to explain the reasons for this and speak to the director, but was charged with defamation:

“This friendly talk of ours was called slander and in any other way, which is an injustice, because the Academy as an institution solved its problems internally, and Marius as the head of the academy unit did not solve its problems inside, and immediately came out outside. with writing “.

Former DIC employee J.Kažemėkaitytė disagrees with the following languages ​​and claims that the change in employees was influenced by his age and desire to reach heights:

“When I worked for DIC, there were a lot of young people working there and when young people work, the change is natural because you always try to target more, the comment itself is a bit off topic. I worked in state control, there was also a constant rotation of employees, because many people were under 30 years old ”.

According to the Dean of the Vilnius Faculty of the Vilnius Academy of Arts: “Marius either liked him as a leader or he didn’t like the people, but he did not try to create a friendly working atmosphere.”

J.Kažemėkaitytė agrees that the former director was not one of the managers who would organize activities or meetings for the employees, but he gladly accepted the initiatives of the others: “Marius is not the person who would organize some activities for the employees, But if we came up with something, like lunch at a birthday party, that has always been supportive and participatory. “

J.Kažemėkaitytė herself, one of the employees who signed the complaint together with M.Urbonavičius, stated that she left her job not because of her boss, but because of intrigues spread by and by the VAA administration.

As soon as I got a job, it was probably nothing more and I didn’t hear from the top management, the administration, that you wouldn’t be working here for long.

“In the first month, as soon as I got a job, it was probably nothing more and I didn’t hear from the top managers, the administration, that you won’t be working here for long. It seems there was a scenario right away. Although I really don’t have to complain about Marius himself. “

“When all power has changed, all the intrigue has begun, because, as I wrote in the complaint, you are invited by the rector and they immediately tell you that if there is something wrong with the manager, come and complain. Somehow I’m not used to that work culture, because if you have problems, you first try to solve them with the manager and only if you are not going to solve them, then you are going somewhere. I didn’t like it very much, ”said the former DIC employee.

The DIC will continue to function

Since 2007 it established DIC, which was headed by M. Urbonavičius from the beginning, and will continue its activities.

Following the complaint, the Ethics Committee initiated a separate meeting to improve the management of the DIC unit.

The Dean of Vilnius recognizes that the activities of the Center are extremely important to the Academy, but they must be improved and changed. During the meeting, it was adopted to change outdated and obstructive regulations.

“It is convenient to change the management model by establishing a DIC council that represents the design and architecture programs of the VAA, which would select and submit to the approval of the Rector the candidacy of the director for a fixed term, coordinate other activities of the DIC to ensure dynamism, openness, communication and cooperation with VAA departments and individual developers. “, – MPŠaliamoras summed up the meeting.

Since its creation, the VAA unit has provided marketing, new product development and renovation services, conducting incubation activities and promoting design in society. Since 2016 responsible for the intellectual property created in the academy. 2019 The State Patent Office granted the status of PATLIB center. Since 2011 it has also organized the Young Designer Award.