LO and DA seek active role in integrating ethnic minorities into labour market

Denmark's DA employers' confederation and LO trade union confederation announced in March 1999 that they would extend their Cooperation Agreement, in order to place ethnic equality on the same footing as gender equality in the work of company-level cooperation committees.

In March 1999, the Danish Federation of Trade Unions (Landorganisationen i Danmark, LO) and the Danish Employers' Confederation (Dansk Arbejdsgiverforning, DA) announced that they had made a commitment to extending their Cooperation Agreement (Samabejdsaftalen), in order to place ethnic equality on the same footing as gender equality.

The LO-DA initiative comes after the Ethnic Equality Board (Nævnet for Etnisk Ligestilling) handed the "baton" in the fight against racial discrimination on to the social partners, recognising the connection between work and the integration of people from ethnic minority groups. Successful integration into Danish society is seen as being closely connected to integration into the labour market: only half of those people from immigrant groups in the 20-29 age group have achieved or are in the process of receiving qualified training, compared with two-thirds of young people of Danish nationality.

The Ethnic Equality Board is established by law and serves to advise the Danish parliament (Folketinget), the government, central and local administrations, private organisations and other public bodies on the issue of discrimination and ethnic equality. Half of the members, with the exception of the chair, are representatives of ethnic minority groups. For the Board to hand the "baton" in the fight against racial discrimination to an organisation symbolises a promise by the recipient to initiate tangible activities concerning ethnic equality.

LO and DA have thus made a commitment to take initiatives and work to achieve equality for ethnic minority groups on the labour market. LO and DA will take joint initiatives in order to integrate ethnic minority groups into the labour market. The outcome will be an extension of the Cooperation Agreement between LO and DA, which governs the operation of joint consultative "cooperation committees" in companies. The extension will mean that ethnic equality will be treated by cooperation committees on the same footing as gender equality. According to a draft of the new text submitted to the Board for Ethnic Equality, shop stewards will need to be better prepared to help absorb people from ethnic minorities into the labour market. Furthermore, LO will produce an introduction to the Danish labour market in the five main languages spoken by immigrant groups, containing information on the "Danish model" and workers' rights. A yearly conference for people from ethnic minority groups is also contemplated. DA plans to educate its local representatives to prepare them to fill positions in local integration councils and the councils of language centres.