Jørgensen, Carsten

On 13 August 2003, the police raided the Fredericia shipyard and seven illegal workers – five Polish and two Philippine nationals – were arrested. This action was the result of several months’ investigation based on information from an alleged organiser of a network of illegal workers. The raid followed a tip-off from the local branch of the General Workers’ Union (Specialarbejderforbundet i Danmark, SiD) which had discovered that illegal workers employed by a subcontractor were to work on the surface treatment of a ship. The illegal workers at Fredericia were paid around DKK 45 per hour, irrespective of the time of the day and the day of the week when they were working. This is about one-third of the wage paid to Danish workers under the relevant collective agreements.

The Union of Wood, Industrial and Building Workers (Træ-Industri-Byg, TIB) has announced that it will establish an affiliated organisation to recruit as trade union members self-employed 'sole operators' working in the construction industry. These sole operators work alone without any employees and do not meet the conditions to be considered as companies, as all they provide is their own labour - ie in reality they work as normal wage earners (they are known as 'arme og ben-firmaer', or 'arms and legs firms'). TIB estimates that there are around 11,000 such sole operators, and the number is increasing. According to the union, their presence in the industry results in 'dumping' in terms of prices and safety. Typically, they work at lower wages than employees covered by a collective agreement, and TIB and the trade union bargaining cartel in building and construction, (Bygge-, Anlægs- og Trækartellet, BAT-kartellet) see this as a serious problem. Together the unions are aiming to combat this phenomenon, both through unionising the more 'serious' of the self-employed sole operators and closing down the less serious 'arms and legs firms'.

EU Directive 96/71/EC concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services [1] seeks to avoid 'social dumping' by ensuring that a minimum set of rights is guaranteed for workers posted by their employer to work in another country. The basic principle is that the working conditions and pay in effect in a Member State should be applicable both to workers from that State, and those from other EU countries posted to work there. The Directive covers undertakings established in a Member State, which, in the framework of the transnational provision of services, post workers to the territory of another Member State. [1] http://europa.eu.int/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexapi!prod!CELEXnumdoc&lg=EN&numdoc=31996L0071&model=guichett

A recent statement from the managing director of the Association of Employers in the Danish Building Industry (Dansk Byggeri) has angered trade unions represented in the building industry, the General Workers' Union (Specialarbejderforbundet i Danmark, SiD) and the Union of Wood, Industrial and Building Workers (Forbundet Træ-Industri-Byg, TIB). He stated that it would be a sign of bad management and leadership if Danish building industry employers did not take advantage of the opportunity to employ workers from Poland and the Baltic states after they join the European Union in 1 May 2004. Such workers could be hired at the lowest wage laid down in the relevant collective agreement without any difficulty. Normally Danish workers are paid close to the double the sector's minimum wage of DKK 94 per hour because of local agreements and acquired bonus entitlements. Hiring a central or eastern European worker on the lowest possible wage might breach the spirit of the wage development agreed in collective bargaining, but would not be against any collectively agreed or legislative provision. The employers also state that Danish workers on a building site will not be able to demand that new recruits from eastern Europe be paid at the same rate as them.

A large-scale strike which began in early May 2003 more or less paralysed the Faroe Islands. Ships bringing goods and food from Denmark were not unloaded and supplies in shops began to run out. Petrol stations did not receive supplies of petrol and the oil tanks in houses were not refilled. Schools and kindergartens were closed down due to lack of cleaning. Furthermore, all Faroese fish markets and fish processing companies were hit hard by the strike. Overall, about 30% of the working population stopped working due to the strike.

A recent study [1] carried out by the Union of Commercial and Clerical Employees in Denmark (Handels- og Kontorfunktionærernes Forbund, HK) and published in February 2003 examines the ownership of its members’ workplaces, and finds that 75% of members work for a multinational enterprise. Furthermore, nearly half of the DK members covered by the study (46.1%) work for a multinational enterprise which is mainly foreign-owned. The extent of this 'internationalisation' has come as something of a surprise for Danish trade unions, which until now had not seen concrete statistics showing that globalisation is affecting so many of their members. HK is Denmark's largest union. [1] http://hk-pro32.hk.dk/hkwww/html.nsf/vFILES/multinationalehk/$FILE/multinationale HK.doc?OpenElement

During the early months of 2003, the Danish Food and Allied Workers’ Union (Nærings –og Nydelsesmiddelforbundet, NNF) negotiated over a new collective agreement for the slaughterhouses and meat processing sector with the employers, represented for the first time by the Confederation of Danish Industries (Dansk Industri, DI) (DK0302102F [1]). The result was a collective agreement running for only one year, which means that the next bargaining in the sector will form part of the major industrial sector negotiations to be held in 2004 (slaughterhouses and meat processing had previously negotiated on a separate timetable). The most interesting feature of the new collective agreement is the so-called 'free choice' scheme, which provides that workers can now choose between spending 2.7% of the wage bill on more leisure time, a higher pension or higher wages. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/new-agreements-introduce-individual-options-for-employees

At a board meeting held on 10 April 2003, the management of Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) presented a latest, third set of restructuring measures aimed at achieving profitability and competitiveness for the airline, which is based in Denmark, Norway and Sweden (having been founded in 1946 by a merger of these countries' national air carriers). A new round of cost reductions worth up to EUR 8 billion will result in 4,000 job losses by 2005 among pilots, cabin crew and ground staff in the three countries, and at the same time will involve a pay freeze and longer working hours for the remaining employees (SE0304104N [1]). Most of the trade unions concerned have already accepted some redundancies and frozen wages. Exact figures have not yet been published concerning how the redundancies will be spread geographically or distributed among the various groups of employees. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/sas-announces-4000-redundancies-and-freezes-pay

In February 2002, the coalition government of the Liberal Party (Venstre) and Conservative People's Party (Konservative Folkeparti) tabled a bill aimed at making access to part-time work easier (DK0202102N [1]). One of the measures to achieve this aim was to render void any provisions in collective agreements which present a direct or indirect obstacle to the right to work part time, or place a restriction on this right. Such an intervention in existing collective agreements is highly unusual in Denmark. It is only on very rare occasions that the government or parliament intervenes in matters concerning the labour market and industrial relations, and it is usually left to the social partners to regulate such matters through collective bargaining. The new part-time work law was adopted in June 2002 (DK0206102N [2]). [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/opposition-to-government-bill-on-part-time-work [2] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/new-act-on-part-time-work-adopted-after-lengthy-debate

On 13 March 2003, the Union of Telecommunication Workers (Telekommunikationsforbundet, TKF) announced that a comfortable majority of its members had voted in a ballot in favour of a merger with the larger Union of Danish Metalworkers (Dansk Metal). The outcome of the ballot had been awaited with great anxiety since the leaders of the two unions agreed on the basis for a merger in October 2002, after thorough preparations. TFK is the smaller of the two unions and the decision of its members was thus crucial - it is most unlikely that the members of the larger Dansk Metal would vote against a merger which would make the union even bigger and if the merger has been accepted by the members of TKF. The ballot among members of Dansk Metal will take place in April 2003, but acceptance of the merger thus seems a formality. In the light of the failure of other attempted union mergers over the last two years (DK0111102N [1]), the campaign was carefully prepared. TKF set up a website containing detailed information about the merger, which its members used extensively for debate and questions. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/merger-between-childcare-workers-unions-abandoned