Industry sector social partners reach agreement on psychological working environment

In May 2001, Ove Hygum, the Danish Minister of Labour, announced that the Working Environment Authority would be given extended powers, enabling it to intervene at workplaces to prevent problems concerning the "psychological working environment", including sexual harassment and serious bullying. Employers described such a move as interference in their managerial prerogatives, while some trade unions perceived a conflict with the Danish "bargaining model", whereby problems are mainly resolved by the social partners themselves. Unions and employers in the trend-setting industry sector subsequently concluded a collective agreement providing that matters relating to the psychological working environment will be dealt with by the social partners themselves through the existing procedures for settling industrial disputes. Similar agreements may follow in other sectors.

On 15 May 2001, the Minister of Labour, Ove Hygum, announced that a new order would be issued, extending the powers of the Working Environment Authority (Arbejdstilsynet) in cases concerning the "psychological working environment". The Authority would be authorised to intervene in cases of sexual harassment and serious bullying, and also if employees were suffering from "a stressful pace of work, heavy workloads or excessively diffuse work tasks." On 17 May, Jørgen Neergaard Larsen, the director of the Danish Employers' Confederation (Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening, DA), described the proposed order as "the most serious attack on managerial prerogatives which we have seen so far". He added that it was an inappropriate step on the part of the Minister of Labour, as his proposal was more far-reaching than the ideas in this area which had previously been discussed between the social partners and the Minister.

A number of trade unions were also concerned about the Minister's proposal, believing that It breaks with one of the basic principles of the Danish collective bargaining model - ie that problems should be solved by the social partners themselves. As a direct result of the Minister's initiative, a new collective agreement on the psychological working environment was subsequently concluded in the trend-setting industry sector, between the Central Organisation of Industrial Employees in Denmark (Centralorganisationen af industriansatte, CO-industri) and the Confederation of Danish Industries (Dansk Industri, DI).

Under the terms of this agreement, problems concerning wellbeing and the psychological working environment are, to the widest possible extent, to be resolved through direct cooperation between the management and employees in the individual enterprises. To the extent that the social partner organisations are to be involved in the resolution of problems, this will be on the basis of either the rules for settlement of industrial disputes or the basic Cooperation Agreement between the parties. With this agreement, the social partners in the industry sector signalled that they wish to handle their own affairs and that they see no reason why the Working Environment Authority should be given extended powers to deal with such cases. This is also the reason why they recommend that an extension of the responsibilities of the Working Environment Authority in the field of the psychological working environment should not include the fields covered by agreements between CO-industri and DI

On the occasion of the conclusion of this agreement on 16 May, Willy Strube, the president of the factory group of the General Workers' Union (Dansk Specialarbejderforbund, SiD) and vice-president of the CO-industri union cartel, stated that the two sides of industry find it very important that the Minister of Labour should respect the Danish model and the subsidiarity principle - this means that it should be the social partners in the industry sector which solve any problems of this nature which may arise in enterprises.

Internal disagreement

The industry sector agreement was not welcomed by the whole trade union movement, and internal disagreement quickly manifested itself among the organisations which make up CO-industri. While the Union of Metalworkers (Dansk Metal) and SiD declared their support for the agreement, it was opposed by the Union of Female Workers (Kvindeligt Arbejderforbund, KAD) which was in favour of the granting of extended powers to the Working Environment Authority. On 22 May, Ulla Sørensen, the KAD secretary for work environment issues, stated that, while it is fine that the enterprise-level social partners themselves should solve these problems, there are enterprises which are not able to do so and this means that there are many cases where there will be a major need for the Working Environment Authority to have extended powers. The proposal from the Minister of Labour is thus seen as a safeguard for the weakest groups on the labour market. "It is fine if CO-industri and Dansk Industri conclude agreements on the top of the legislation, but I fail to see that the agreement concluded can replace the Minister's proposal", said Ms Sørensen. A week later, this view was supported by another important union organisation, the industrial section of the Union of Commercial and Clerical Employees (Handels- og kontorfunktionærernes Forbund, HK).

The two central social partner organisations, the Confederation of Danish Trade Unions (Landsorganisationen i Danmark, LO) and the Danish Employers' Confederation (Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening, DA), appealed to unions and employers in other sectors to conclude agreements similar to that reached between CO-industri and DI. This was seen as an attempt to neutralise the effects of the Minister's proposal of increased powers for the Working Environment Authority. Finn Larsen, head of unit at LO, later stated that LO shared the view expressed by DA that such agreements should be concluded, while it also believed that there was a need for the proposal put forward by the Minister of Labour. "It is a good idea that the Working Environment Authority may step in if the psychological working climate gets completely out of control at a workplace," Mr Larsen declared on 30 May.

Commentary

The recent developments relating to the psychological working environment should be seen in the light of the general debate which is currently taking place about the future of the Danish bargaining model. The issue - which has also arisen in present discussions about the implementation of the EU Directive on part-time work (97/81/EC)- is whether the regulation of industrial relations in Denmark should move from a mainly agreement-based model in the direction of a model increasingly characterised by statutory regulation (DK0001164F).

It is not clear whether the government – which has until now strongly advocated the Danish bargaining model – still sticks to this view or whether the statutory model is gaining ground from the political perspective. On the other hand, it may perhaps be the case that initiatives such as the Minister of Labour's proposal for a new order on the psychological working environment should be seen more as an attempt to put pressure on the social partners – and, in this case, in particular the employers – to conclude agreements on their own initiative in order to achieve the intended purpose (ie a better psychological working environment).

In any event, the government seems to have again stressed the advantages of the Danish bargaining model in statements made in June 2001. Minister Hygum told Ugemagasinet Industrien (a weekly magazine for the industrial sector) that he would allow the Working Environment Authority to intervene in, for example, a case related to bullying and harassment, only if all procedures within the enterprise for solving the problem had been exhausted. The Minister thus stressed the key role of new sector-specific agreements in this area, and played down the legislative aspect. On 12 June, Kim Graugaard, the director of DI, expressed his satisfaction with this new signal from Mr Hygum: "This means that we can use the new agreement between DI and CO-industri in actual practice. This will make it possible for the social partners to prevent and solve problems in this field in cooperation." However, Mr Graugaard was still looking for clearer statements about the detailed content of the proposed order concerning the extended powers to be given to the Working Environment Authority in this field. (Jørgen Steen Madsen, FAOS)