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Denmark

Background information on industrial relations in Denmark

• 28 Dec 2000
  Denmark: Negotiations on flexi-jobs and early retirement deadlocked

  Negotiations in Denmark over a new early retirement scheme and special "flexi-jobs" for people with a reduced capacity to work were postponed in late 2000 due to disagreement between the parties. The LO trade union confederation wants people in "flexi-jobs" to be able to join unemployment insurance funds and thus have rights to unemployment benefits and early retirement pay, while the DA employers' confederation is strongly opposed to this idea. With the social partners unwilling to compromise on this point, the government may bypass them in introducing a reform.

• 28 Dec 2000
  Denmark: Legislation to make gender wage differences more visible

  In December 2000, preparatory work began on new Danish legislation to oblige employers to provide trade unions with wage data so that they will be better equipped to analyse gender pay differences and draw up action plans for equal pay. The government decided to act after a joint committee set up by the social partners failed to come up with any proposals in this area.

• 28 Dec 2000
  Denmark: Compromise over anticipatory pension scheme reform

  After many preparations and tough political negotiations in the final phase, a reform of Denmark's "anticipatory pension" early retirement scheme for people with disabilities was finally adopted in December 2000. The Minister of Social Affairs had to give up his plan to allow people in state-subsidised "flexi-jobs" (for those with a reduced capacity to work) to join unemployment insurance funds. This was agains the wishes of the LO trade union confederation but the DA employers' confederation is very satisfied with the new reform, which in other ways means a simplification of the system. In a broader perspective, the reform represents a weakening of the role of the social partners in formulating policy in this area.

• 28 Dec 2000
  Denmark: Childcare workers' unions plan merger

  At its congress in December 2000, the Danish Federation of Early Childhood Teachers and Youth Educators (BUPL) considered a possible merger with the National Union of Nursery and Childcare Assistants (PMF) to create a single trade union for childcare workers, which would be the sixth-largest union in Denmark. The two unions currently belong to different confederations - LO in the case of BUPL and FTF in the case of PMF - and a merged union would have to decide between the two. If it were to choose LO, this might have negative consequence for FTF, which groups salaried employees' unions, if other major unions followed BUPL's example. However, the merger will be faced by opposition within BUPL.

• 28 Dec 2000
  Denmark: 2000 Annual Review for Denmark

  This record reviews 2000's main developments in industrial relations in Denmark.

• 28 Nov 2000
  Denmark: New working time rules agreed for telework

  An agreement signed in October 2000 by the social partners in the Danish commerce and services sector makes it possible for employees to work at home without complying with the normal statutory "11-hour rule" on rest periods. The agreement, which seeks to obtain a higher degree of flexibility for teleworking, applies only if the employees concerned wish it to do so and if it is possible for these employees to organise their work themselves.

• 28 Nov 2000
  Denmark: New bargaining structures and flexibility in finance

  In autumn 2000, the social partners in the Danish finance sector agreed a new bargaining structure, providing for greater flexibility and allowing the development of individualised agreements. The next sectoral bargaining round occurs in spring 2001, but an agreement has already been signed at an internet-based stock-broking firm, E-trade, which gives employees the possibility of choosing between the terms of the normal collective agreement or a personal tailor-made agreement where part of their salary is paid in the form of shares and/or a bonus. These developments in finance can be seen as the first step in the direction of a new bargaining structure in Denmark.

• 28 Nov 2000
  Denmark: Collective bargaining coverage increases

  Since the mid-1990s, the level of coverage of collective bargaining has been increasing in Denmark, and four out of five employees are now covered by a collective agreement. The increase in coverage is most marked among private sector white-collar employees, while the level of coverage is also increasing within some of the "new economy" and information technology sectors. These are among the findings of a major study undertaken by the Confederation of Danish Trade Unions (LO), published in November 2000.

• 28 Oct 2000
  Denmark: Copenhagen childcare cuts withdrawn after long strike

  Planned cut-backs in childcare provision in the municipality of Copenhagen led to a strike among childcare staff in September-October 2000. After more than three weeks of strike action, the municipal council withdrew a decision to reduce the opening hours of daycare institutions. The childcare workers' trade unions see the result of the protracted industrial dispute as a victory, in spite of the fact that the employees are facing sanctions for holding an unlawful strike.

• 28 Oct 2000
  Denmark: Denmark votes no to the euro

  On 28 September 2000, the Danish electorate voted by 53.2% to 46.8% not to participate in the third stage of EU Economic and Monetary Union and the euro single currency. Most social partner organisations had called for a "yes" vote to the euro. The labour movement was divided on the question, with trade union leaders strongly recommending a "yes", but many rank-and-file members voting "no".

• 28 Sep 2000
  Denmark: Employee representatives and management take on new roles in municipal/county sector

  A new study of local managers and employee representatives in Denmark's municipal/county sector, published in August 2000, indicates that both are being given more tasks, more responsibility and more influence as a result of decentralisation, not least of wage bargaining. Furthermore, employee representatives are becoming increasingly involved in strategic and economic decisions, and this requires more training.

• 28 Sep 2000
  Denmark: Wage increases fall despite low unemployment

  Wage increases in Denmark are showing a downward trend in spite of historically low unemployment figures and prospects of a considerable growth in exports. According to statistics from the DA employers' confederation, pay increased by an average of 3.4% from the second quarter of 1999 to the second quarter of 2000 in the sectors covered by DA and the LO trade union confederation.

• 28 Sep 2000
  Denmark: LO wants employee share-ownership regulated by collective agreements

  There has been a boom in employee share-ownership in Danish companies over the past decade. Provoked by a dramatic article in a newspaper on its attitude to such schemes, the Confederation of Danish Trade Unions (LO) was prompted to express its views in a press release in September 2000, stating that employee share-ownership should be regulated by collective agreements. This generated comments from both the employers - which rejected LO's proposals - and from the organisations in the public sector - which took a sceptical position.

• 28 Sep 2000
  Denmark: Working Environment Authority requires reduced working hours in meat factories

  The health of workers in Danish meat factories is damaged by monotonous, repetitive work (MRW), but they do not want to change this situation. This seems to be the somewhat contradictory signal given by a strike in September 2000, after a safety committee called for a reduction in the pace of work. This followed an intervention by the Working Environment Authority threatening a working time reduction in meat factories if MRW was not limited. The workers involved are unhappy with the intervention of the authorities, fearing that a reduced pace of work will lead to large fall in wages.

• 28 Aug 2000
  Denmark: Concern over education and training choices

  According to figures published in July 2000, increasing numbers of people are applying for higher education courses in Denmark. Many applicants have been attracted to new short vocational college programmes, to the detriment of traditional education programmes, such as those for teachers, pre-school teachers and nurses, and of university education in the fields of arts and science. This development has caused concern among employers' organisations and trade unions, worried about future shortages of key workers.

• 28 Aug 2000
  Denmark: Court finds against department store in Muslim headscarf case

  In August 2000, the Danish High Court delivered its long-awaited judgment in the high-profile "headscarf case", in which a girl of Iraqi descent sued the Magasin department store for refusing to take her on as a trainee because she insisted on wearing her scarf. The High Court ruled that this was a violation of the Act prohibiting discrimination on the labour market, as it constituted indirect discrimination. However, two major retails, FDB and Dansk Supermarked, will maintain their ban on special headgear among their employees.

• 28 Aug 2000
  Denmark: Debate over EMU membership intensifies

  During summer 2000, the publication of several new reports have fueled the debate in the run-up to September's referendum on Danish membership of the third stage of EU Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the euro single currency. The Danish Employers' Confederation (DA) is recommending a "yes" vote, but is keeping a low profile, while the Confederation of Danish Trade Unions (LO) and the the majority of the trade unions are very active in the campaign for a "yes" to the euro.

• 28 Jul 2000
  Denmark: Third time lucky: Falck agreement approved

  In June 2000, ambulance workers and firefighters employed by Denmark's Falck private rescue service approved a revised compromise collective agreement in a third ballot, thus ending a three-week strike. The dispute highlighted a problem in the Danish bargaining system: the difficult of reaching agreements with a four-year term (as occurred in the 2000 bargaining round) in the sectors covered by the "normal wage" system - whereby central bargaining sets pay levels and there is no local bargaining during the term of the agreement - where two-year deals are the norm. However, a new wage system introduced in the third version of the Falck agreement may pave the way to a solution of these problems.

• 28 Jul 2000
  Denmark: Professional associations' journals launch campaign against xenophobia

  A study of 300 personnel managers commissioned by the journals of 13 Danish professional associations indicates that one out of five public sector managers and one out of 10 public sector managers believe that highly educated immigrants and refugees do not belong in their organisation. The reasons most commonly cited are language and cultural barriers, as well as scepticism as to the quality of foreign education programmes. The study was commissioned as part of a joint campaign, entitled "Professional journals against xenophobia", launched in June 2000.

• 28 Jul 2000
  Denmark: New Holiday Act introduces more flexibility

  In May 2000 the Danish parliament adopted a new Holiday Act which will come into operation by the turn of the year 2001. The new law increases flexibility as to when the holiday is to be taken - primarily by making it possible to conclude agreements concerning the transfer of one of the five weeks of statutory annual leave from one holiday year to the next. The new rules have been introduced after many years of discussion and reflect a strengthening of the role of the social partners. Employees in areas which are not covered by any collective agreement will also be covered by the Act, but are to follow the rules laid down in the agreement which would normally be applicable in the area concerned. The Holiday Act does not regulate the so-called "sixth week of holiday" which is currently being introduced in most Danish collective agreements in the form of "special holidays".

• 28 Jul 2000
  Denmark: Care services in private hands as local authorities increase use of outsourcing

  The last strongholds of public services in Denmark seem to be falling to the continued use of outsourcing of tasks to private enterprises by municipalities, and this development will continue. These are the findings of a study carried out by the municipal sector employers' organisation, KL, and published in June 2000. The study - which is the first of this type - confirms that a growing number of local authorities want to use outsourcing in politically sensitive sectors such as care for children and elderly people.

• 28 Jun 2000
  Denmark: Railway union merges with HK

  In May 2000, the Danish Railways Association (Jernbaneforeningen) decided to merge with the state employees' sector of the country's largest trade union, the Union of Commercial and Clerical Employees (HK). The move reflects the fact that the public servants represented by the Association are facing uncertainty, as an increasing number of former core activities of the DSB state railway are split up and the employees are transferred to private firms with different collective agreements.

• 28 Jun 2000
  Denmark: Danish women still a long way from equal pay

  A study published in May 2000 confirmed that Danish women are still far from equal pay. The pay gap between women and men on the labour market as a whole is between 12% and 20%, and in the private sector the wages of men are on average 17% higher than those of women. Only a minor part of this pay gap can be attributed to educational and occupational criteria, with the remainder unaccounted for. The Danish Employers' Confederation (DA) and the Minister for Equal Opportunities blame the sex-segregated labour market for the pay gap, while the Confederation of Danish Trade Unions (LO) proposes easier access to data about wages in order to achieve a higher degree of transparency.

• 28 Jun 2000
  Denmark: Falck rescue workers reject collective agreement

  In June 2000, ambulance workers and firefighter employed by Denmark's Falck private rescue company went on strike, having twice rejected agreements concluded by their trade union, SiD, and the AHTS employers' organisation. The reasons for rejection were cooperation problems with Falck management and a wage system which did not reflect the work performance, on a 24-hour basis, of individual crew members. The dispute also to some extent reflected dissatisfaction with the four-year agreement for the transport sector concluded earlier in 2000 by SiD. A third compromise agreement seemed likely to be approved in a ballot on 23 June.

• 28 May 2000
  Denmark: Minister of Labour opposes legislation on urine tests

  In May 2000, the Danish Minister of Labour stated that he was not in favour of legislation over the use of alcohol and drug tests at work, and left it to the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) and the Danish Employers' Confederation (DA) to prepare a set of ethical rules on the issue. There had been trade union calls for such legislation following a recent ruling from an industrial arbitration tribunal that a shipping company was entitled to conduct unannounced urine tests on its employees to check, for safety reasons, whether there were any traces of intoxicants.

• 28 May 2000
  Denmark: Initiatives to promote the integration of immigrants

  The issue of the labour market integration of immigrants has been very topical in Denmark in the first half of 2000. The National Institute for Social Research has evaluated a training project for unemployed immigrants and found it to be successful, identifying the criteria for success as better language competences combined with active job-seeking activities and practical training programmes. The project may turn out to be a breakthrough for integration initiatives in Denmark, and is fully in line with the proposals contained in the first consolidated report issued early in 2000 by a joint committee on integration set up by the government.

• 28 May 2000
  Denmark: 1999 was a peaceful year on the Danish labour market

  According to figures from Statistics Denmark, 1999 was a peaceful year on the Danish labour market, compared with the very turbulent year of 1998 when more than 3 million working days were lost due to the large-scale industrial dispute in the area of the private sector covered by the LO trade union confederation and DA employers' confederation. The number of days lost in 1999 was 91,800, although the number of work stoppages remained fairly stable.

• 28 Apr 2000
  Denmark: New public sector pay systems lead to individualised strikes

  In April 2000, four highly-qualified employees of Denmark's National Working Environment Authority had been on strike for three months in a dispute over pay supplements. Since the introduction of a new public sector pay system in 1998, there have been scattered strikes across the country due to disputes concerning the amount and duration of special allowances under the new system. Unusually, the strikes have lasted for up to six months and been confined to groups of two to four people, and even individuals, as a consequence of the individualised pay negotiations introduced by the new system.

• 28 Apr 2000
  Denmark: Members fail to take active part in union work

  A survey of some 2,000 Danish trade union members conducted in early 2000 indicates that members are satisfied with the unions, but take little part in practical union work. The concerns expressed in connection with a major membership study in 1992, when many feared that the trade union movement faced serious problems ahead, seem to have been overcome, with new figures showing a slight increase in members' satisfaction with their trade union. The trade union movement's strong emphasis on services has thus turned out to be a two-edged sword. The members tend to see their trade union as a "service shop" and they like it.

• 28 Apr 2000
  Denmark: Unions and employers' organisations both recommend a Danish yes to EMU

  In March 2000, the Danish government fixed the date of the referendum concerning Denmark's participation in the third phase of EU Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The referendum will be held on 28 September 2000, which is earlier than expected. Most social partner organisations - with the DA employers' confederation and LO trade union confederation in the forefront - are, like the government, recommending a "yes" vote. However, since the referendum date was fixed, opinion polls indicate that previously high levels of support for EMU are waning and a close contest is in prospect.

• 28 Mar 2000
  Denmark: Unlawful strike by bus drivers

  Denmark's exceptionally peaceful 2000 collective bargaining round had hardly been completed in February, when an unlawful industrial dispute broke out in the transport sector. Highly unusually, bus drivers across the country took strike action in protest against the SiD trade union. The drivers wished to express their discontent with the agreement concluded between SiD and the employers, and especially the working time rules which they considered a step backwards in relation to the previous agreement.

• 28 Mar 2000
  Denmark: Atypical employment grows among highly-qualified

  In Denmark, a growing group of academically-qualified people who are not in a permanent employment relationship often have to work for free in order to avoid unemployment, while others are working in an insecure job market as poorly-paid freelancers. However, another large group of highly-qualified people in atypical employment are doing well as consultants and free agents. These are the results of the first major study which focuses on flexible employment relationships among academically-qualified people, published in March 2000 by a trade union-linked institute.

• 28 Mar 2000
  Denmark: Trust restored between trade union members and negotiators

  The bargaining process over the new collective agreements approved in Denmark in March 2000 appears to have restored the confidence between top and bottom of the trade union movement, which had been badly shaken by the major industrial dispute of 1998. At the same time, the new agreements mark a renewed importance for the central social partner organisations - the Confederation of Danish Trade Unions (LO) and the Danish Employers' Confederation (DA) - which had been losing ground to the sectoral organisations, especially the Confederation of Danish Industries (Dansk Industri) and the Central Organisation of Industrial Employees in Denmark (CO-Industri).

• 28 Feb 2000
  Denmark: Historic stability pact agreed in industry sector

  In late January 2000, the social partners in Denmark's industry sector concluded a historic "stability pact". The term of the collective agreement has been extended to four years, while employees have obtained longer holidays in the form of five flexible extra days of leave per year, and occupational pension contributions have been increased to 9%. Due to the long term of the agreement, the total increase in costs as a result of the central bargaining will be only about 1% per year, thus leaving some room for wage increases in local bargaining without any harmful impact upon the national economy. A positive result for the employers was an agreement on more flexible working time organisation at local level.

• 28 Feb 2000
  Denmark: 2000 bargaining round completed peacefully

  In the favourable climate which characterised the course of the Danish collective bargaining round in 2000, it did not take long for the Public Conciliator to draw up a draft compromise in February which could be accepted without problems by both the DA employers' confederation and the LO trade union confederation. Only 3% of the LO/DA area did not conclude an agreement before the Public Conciliator became involved. The peaceful bargaining climate spread to the transport sector, where negotiations could have faltered over the issue of the unusual four-year period of the agreement.

• 28 Feb 2000
  Denmark: Compromise means renewed stability in Danish industrial relations

  The conclusion in January and February 2000 of new four-year collective agreements covering most of the private sector has resolved an essential problem in the continuing "coordinated decentralisation" of the Danish collective bargaining system. The Danish bargaining model has adapted itself to meet the requirements for flexible, enterprise-oriented solutions which Danish enterprises are facing in an internationalised economy. The good "homework" done by the organisations prior to the start of the negotiations - including the September 1999 "climate agreement" between the LO trade union confederation and DA employers' confederation - was a contributory factor to the conclusion of the first agreements in the industry sector and in building and construction, and thus to the prospect of a solution for the entire DA/LO area with promising future perspectives.

• 28 Jan 2000
  Denmark: More time off and occupational pensions are main themes in bargaining

  In mid-January, Denmark's 2000 bargaining round in the area covered by the DA employers' confederation and LO trade union confederation was proceeding quietly, with more time off and occupational pensions the main themes. The unions' demands for a sixth week of annual leave does not seem to have alarmed employers, which have not stated any specific demands of their own, but rather expectations of a longer duration of collective agreements and more company-level working time flexibility. The industry sector has once again taken the leading role and has set 10 February as the deadline for an agreement.

• 28 Jan 2000
  Denmark: Danish model maintained by implementation of EU Directives through collective agreements

  In November 1999, the Danish Ministry of Labour received a formal letter of notice from the European Commission concerning Denmark's implementation of the 1993 working time Directive. The Commission questioned whether Denmark's implementation of the Directive through collective agreements provided all employees with the necessary guarantees. In response, the LO trade union confederation and the DA employers' confederation have concluded an "implementation agreement" on the Directive, effective from February 2000, which means that it now in practice covers all employees. Accordingly, the "Danish model" should be able to survive successfully.

• 28 Jan 2000
  Denmark: Industrial relations in shipbuilding in Denmark

  The once powerful Danish shipbuilding industry, which had thousands of employees and yards in all regions of the country, has witnessed a fatal decline in orders for new ships, and many shipbuilding yards have shut down over recent decades. This is mainly due to severe competition from South Korea, which Denmark, together with the other shipbuilding countries in the EU and the trade unions, accuses of unfair competition in form of state subsidies and unrealistically low prices. However, new modern industries are growing where shipbuilding once ruled, and Danish shipyards are being taken over by the windmill industry. This article reviews the situation at the beginning of 2000.

• 28 Jan 2000
  Denmark: Unlawful strike by bus drivers

  Denmark's exceptionally peaceful 2000 collective bargaining round had hardly been completed in February, when an unlawful industrial dispute broke out in the transport sector. Highly unusually, bus drivers across the country took strike action in protest against the SiD trade union. The drivers wished to express their discontent with the agreement concluded between SiD and the employers, and especially the working time rules which they considered a step backwards in relation to the previous agreement.