20 February, 2012Job security and job creation was the foundation behind a new two-year national labour agreement between social partners in Denmark. That came together in marathon bargaining over the weekend, February 11-12, in framework talks for 240,000 Danish manufacturing workers and 6,000 enterprises, the latter represented by Dansk Industri.
DENMARK: The trade unions, led by the eight making up Co-Industri, including 3F, Dansk Metal and HK/Pivat, in concert with the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), set an agenda of wage moderation, instead focusing on winning excellent and precedent-setting job preservation protections such as training, seniority, and reduced work hours at full pay for both old and young workers.
This industrial social accord now establishes the parameters for other work sectors. The agreement will run from March 1, 2012 to March 1, 2014. The national industrial agreement did establish minimum wage guideposts, but exact wage increases will now be negotiated at local levels and inside company agreements.
The framework agreement grants training at full pay with business downturns and when reductions in work time occur, and it also allows older workers to reduce their working time within five years of retirement by continuing their income levels through salaries and partial pension benefits. Workers will also have the option to tap into current pension plans as a supplement to salaries.
A key element in the new agreement is an additional 0.05 EUR per-hour worked will be added to the national Industrial Training fund.
Employee discretion in taking training options increases from two weeks to six weeks, in some cases, and full seniority is granted to workers when they are called back from lay-offs within nine months. Previously, it was six months. As well, paid sick leave occurs after six months on a job rather than the previous nine months.
The new pact is also kinder to lower-income earners and gives better pay-outs when such workers are laid off. Parental leave was made more flexible and added pension accrual was put in place for weekend, holiday or extra work performed.
The recommended minimum wage increase is 0.18 EUR per-hour effective March 1, and the same amount again on March 1, 2013. A pay supplement of 1.4 per cent each year is available for performing difficult work, and apprentices, trainees and interns will get a 2.25 per cent pay hike in each year.
The bargaining, which began in early January, nearly reached dispute when HK/Privat , the Commercial and Clerical Workers' Union, sought to drop the 50 per cent benchmark regarding number of staff needed before a collective agreement takes effect. A compromise was struck that gives employers the opportunity to sign labour agreements without the 50 per cent threshold and HK/Privat coverage also was expanded to include administrative staff working as trainees and college students.
The agreement was widely praised in Denmark as the necessary building block to restore some 80,000 industrial and manufacturing jobs that have been lost in the country since the onset of the financial crisis.