Working in Denmark - a guide to the Danish labour market - part 1
Most people on the Danish labour market are represented by an organisation
A fundamental feature of the Danish labour market model is the strong labour market organisations. Membership of an organisation is common for Danish employers and employees.
English (United States) | Written 9/23/2009 read 409 times since then
Most people on the Danish labour market are represented by an organisation
A fundamental feature of the Danish labour market model is the strong labour market organisations. Membership of an organisation is common for Danish employers and employees. Approximately 80 per cent of the Danish employees are members of a trade union; union density varies from one sector to another.
Employees and employers are grouped according to their occupational field in national trade unions and employer organisations. In the annex you will find contact information on the central organisations representing respectively employees and employers.
Foreign employees and enterprises may also join Danish labour market organisations.
The social partners play a leading role
The social partners represent a vast majority of employers and employees. The social partners, thus, play a decisive role in defining pay and working conditions on the labour market. Denmark has a long tradition for a division of labour between the State and the special partners with the State intervening as little as possible in the regulation of pay and working conditions. This is also reflected in the fact that there is no statutory minimum wage in Denmark. Instead pay and working conditions are primarily regulated through collective agreements concluded between trade unions and employer organisations.
Pay and working conditions are laid down in collective agreements
A collective agreement is a contract defining the working conditions applying to employees in a specific enterprise or within an occupational sector. On the employee side, the party to a collective agreement will always be a trade union. On the employer side it may be the individual employer/enterprise or an employer organisation.
An employer covered by a collective agreement must offer the terms of the agreement to all employees working within the area of the collective agreement. This means that an employee who is not a member of a trade union must nevertheless be offered the same pay and working conditions as other employees in the enterprise.
Collective agreements with non-organized employers
If an employer is not a member of an employer organisation, the trade union may negotiate a collective agreement with the individual employer. Such collective agreements between an individual employer and a trade union most often take the form of the so-called "adhesion agreements". An adhesion agreement obligates the employer to follow the relevant collective agreement in the occupational field concerned.
Adhesion agreements may, in particular, be relevant in relation to foreign employers.
Cooperation is the standard - and industrial disputes are governed by rules
The social partners are responsible for compliance with collective agreements. This also applies to any foreign enterprise that has concluded a collective agreement or is bound through its membership of a Danish employer organisation.
When a collective agreement has been concluded there is a general peace duty. This means that strikes and lockouts are normally unlawful as long as a collective agreement is in force. Usually this does not cause any significant problems. In Denmark, the parties are normally able to discuss any problems and negotiate with a view to solving disputes.
There is a highly developed system based on cooperation agreements and a fundamental respect for agreements concluded.
If one of the parties to a collective agreement breaches the agreement, this party may be liable to pay a penalty. The amount of the penalty may be negotiated by the parties or be imposed on one of the parties by the Industrial Court. If a collective agreement has been concluded, dispute may arise as to the interpretation of the agreement. In this case, either party may demand that the interpretation dispute is solved by industrial arbitration.
The collective bargaining system in Denmark also includes special rules concerning employee representatives. An employee representative is an employee who has been elected by and among the employees to represent them and the trade union at the workplace. The employee representative enjoys special protection as he/she cannot be summarily dismissed.
The employee representative has formal powers to negotiate with the management on issues concerning pay and working conditions and to enter into agreements with the employer on a mandate from the other employees - in some cases subject to the approval of the trade union concerned.
The right to take industrial action
In Denmark, trade unions have a fundamental right to try to obtain collective agreements with employers and employer organisations. The trade unions may support their claim by taking industrial action against the employer. This also applies in relation to foreign employers operating in Denmark and posting workers to perform work in Denmark.
The rules on industrial action are not statutory, but have been developed over many years through the case law of the Industrial Court. Generally, there is an extensive right to take industrial action and sympathetic action. The lawfulness of the industrial action depends on whether the action concerns work that falls within the trade union's usual field of activity. But it is not a condition that the trade union has members employed in the enterprise.
Strike, boycott and sympathetic action are types of collective industrial action that a trade union may take.
- In the case of a strike, the trade union instructs its members to suspend the work in the enterprise involved in the dispute
- In the case of boycott, the trade union instructs its members not to take up employment in the enterprise involved in the dispute
- In the case of sympathetic action, the trade union or other trade unions in the same central organisation supports the main dispute by instructing their members to strike or not to perform work for the enterprise involved in the dispute.
The most important rules
There are four ways of working in Denmark:
- as an employee employed in a Danish enterprise,
- as a posted worker employed with an enterprise providing services in Denmark,
- as a foreign registered self-employed person providing services in Denmark, or
- as a Danish registered self-employed person setting up his/her own business in Denmark.
Rules on employment: the Danish transitional scheme
Presently, access to the Danish labour market for workers from the new East European EU Member States is regulated by a national transitional scheme. It is a requirement of the transitional scheme that citizens from the eight East European EU Member States must have a residence and work permit that will be granted if the following conditions are met:
- The job must be for at least 30 hours per week.
- The employment must be covered by a collective agreement or in other ways meet the prevailing standards for pay and working conditions for the type of job in question.
- The employer must be registered and be liable to pay tax in accordance with the Danish Act on Taxation at the Source.
- The employer must not be involved in a lawful industrial dispute.
Taking up work is only allowed after having obtained a residence and work permit from the Immigration Service, which makes an effort to deal with all applications as efficiently and quickly as possible.
In the case of an offer of a job in an enterprise holding a prior approval from the Immigration Service, the work may, however, be started as soon as the employment relationship has been notified to the Immigration Service.
A residence and work permit only applies to the employment relationship for which it has been granted and a person cannot start in a new job until a new residence and work permit has been granted by the Immigration Service. or - in the case of employment with enterprises holding a prior approval - until the employment relationship has notified to the Immigration Service.
If the residence and work permit is to be prolonged, the person concerned may continue in the same job while the Immigration Service is considering the application. The application for prolongation must be sent to the Immigration Service one month before the expiry of the old permit.
If a person works continuously in a job in Denmark for a minimum of 12 months under the rules of the transitional scheme he/she may after 12 months change job without having to obtain a new residence and work permit. This does not apply if the person leaves the labour market of his/her own accord.
Part 2 of article: http://www.connectture.com/Articles/tabid/123/ctl/ Article/mid/561/Aid/57/Default.aspx
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