Tilburg is not responsible for the chromium-6 drama, according to the municipality itself. Together with NedTrain, the municipality stood before the court in Rotterdam on Monday. The Public Prosecution Service holds them both responsible for the health damage that welfare recipients suffered when they had to sand museum trains in exchange for benefits. The sanded paint contained the carcinogenic substance chromium-6. But the municipality of Tilburg completely denies that responsibility.
Public prosecutor Koopmans demanded a fine of more than three thousand euros for the municipality and for NedTrain. During a reintegration project for the unemployed in Tilburg, unemployed people had to sand museum trains in return for benefits. The dust released by the sanding contained carcinogenic chromium-6. From 2004 to 2010, more than 800 unemployed people were obliged to sand trains.
Through the dust
The municipality of Tilburg already went through the dust in 2019, when it became known that the reintegration process had to work with the toxic chromium-6. The municipality then apologized, a compensation of 7000 euros was offered to everyone who had worked with the toxic paint. People who became ill could also apply for compensation from an independent committee.
But in court on Monday, the council’s lawyers pulled out all the stops to shirk responsibility. According to the lawyers, the case would be time-barred. And the unemployed who had to sand trains were deployed to tROM, an independent company that is separate from the municipality. And at that company not only people would work through the municipality of Tilburg, but also a prison, bureau HALT and other municipalities in the region made use of it, the lawyers argued.
And that was not the end of the arguments: the labor inspectorate remained silent. And above all: the knowledge about the harmful substance chromium-6 was with Nedtrain, they should have informed the municipality about this, the lawyers of the municipality said.
Aggression
Also very special was the pointing finger at the participants of the tROM project, who were difficult to correct during work and would have been aggressive. There were fights, someone would have been threatened with a knife and another would have had a cable reel to the head. Not exactly an atmosphere in which you could point people to their responsibility, according to the municipality’s lawyer.
Natascha van de Put, one of the victims in the chromium-6 drama, is very sad about the way in which the municipality is abdicating its responsibility. “We feel like liars when you hear the municipality like that. What I said during the interrogation has now been taken out of context.”
The chromium-6 lawsuit in Rotterdam will continue on Tuesday and NedTrain will speak.
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