The Case of Denmark

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The Case of Denmark REDUCING PRECARIOUS WORK IN EUROPE THROUGH SOCIAL DIALOGUE: THE CASE OF DENMARK Stine Rasmussen, Bjarke Refslund, Ole H. Sørensen and Trine P. Larsen Produced for the EC project ‘Reducing precarious work in Europe through social dialogue’ DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Project VP/2014/004 (Industrial Relations & Social Dialogue) http://www.research.mbs.ac.uk/ewerc/Our-research/Current-projects/ Reducing-Precarious-Work-in-Europe-through-Social November 2016 Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................ 5 The nature of ‘Protective Gaps’ in the Denmark ........................................................................................... 6 How do Protective Gaps apply to different types of precarious work? ........................................................ 8 The role of social dialogue in closing protective gaps ................................................................................. 10 Case studies of distinct forms of social dialogue addressing precarious employment ............................... 10 Part 1: Overview report of Protective gaps and the Role of Social Dialogue ........................................... 12 Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 12 Chapter 2: General description of the Danish labour market ................................................................. 14 The collective agreements ........................................................................................................................... 14 Legislation .................................................................................................................................................... 18 Social security and social protection ........................................................................................................... 20 Summary – the Danish labour market and precariousness ........................................................................ 21 Chapter 3: Precariousness in the less organised parts of the Danish labour market ................................ 23 Self-employed workers ................................................................................................................................ 30 Summary ...................................................................................................................................................... 31 Chapter 4: Less than guaranteed full-time hours .................................................................................. 32 Part time employment ................................................................................................................................ 32 Gaps ............................................................................................................................................................. 35 Summary ...................................................................................................................................................... 37 Chapter 5: Temporary work .................................................................................................................. 38 Fixed-term contracts ................................................................................................................................... 38 Gaps ......................................................................................................................................................... 40 Temporary Agency Work ............................................................................................................................. 42 Gaps ......................................................................................................................................................... 45 Summary ...................................................................................................................................................... 46 Chapter 6: Cost-driven subcontracted work .......................................................................................... 48 Rules and regulations .................................................................................................................................. 49 Posting ..................................................................................................................................................... 49 2 The construction sector ............................................................................................................................... 51 Other sectors affected by cost-driven subcontracting ................................................................................ 52 Summary ...................................................................................................................................................... 53 Chapter 7: Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 55 References for part 1 ............................................................................................................................ 56 Part 2: Case studies of Social Dialogue initiatives targeting precarious work in Denmark ........................ 60 Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 60 Chapter 2: Case study 1: The use of labour clauses in public procurement ............................................. 64 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 64 Labour clauses and public procurement in the Danish public sector ......................................................... 65 The potential clashes between labour clauses, the Danish IR-model and EU legislation ....................... 66 Labour clauses and public procurement – the case of Copenhagen .......................................................... 67 Sector analysis – construction ..................................................................................................................... 69 Introduction to the sector ....................................................................................................................... 69 The application of labour clauses in the construction sector in Copenhagen ........................................ 70 The outcome of the application of labour clauses .................................................................................. 71 Sector analysis – Industrial Cleaning ........................................................................................................... 73 Introduction to the sector ....................................................................................................................... 73 Labour clauses and industrial cleaning – the Case of Copenhagen......................................................... 75 The effects of labour clauses ................................................................................................................... 78 Summary ...................................................................................................................................................... 79 Chapter 3: Case study 2 – Organising labour migrants ........................................................................... 81 Organising migrants to reduce precarity ......................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Migrants and precarity in Denmark ............................................................................................................ 81 Types of migrants – and the prospects for union recruitment ................................................................... 83 Case Studies – organising in the fishing industry and construction ............................................................ 84 Case study: Organising in the fish processing industry in Northern Jutland ........................................... 84 Case study: Organising in larger construction sites ................................................................................. 86 The union strategies on organising migrant workers .............................................................................. 86 Summary - Lessons learned in organising migrant workers ........................................................................ 88 Chapter 4: Case study 3 - Social partner responses to temporary agency work within manufacturing ..... 90 Introduction ..................................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Recent development in Temporary Agency Work in Denmark ................................................................... 91 3 Collective agreement coverage, membership of employers’ associations and unions .......................... 92 Wages and working conditions among TAW within manufacturing ....................................................... 93 Social partners responses– the case of their joint task force ..................................................................... 94 Implementing social partners’ Joint task force – take up rate and lessons learned ..................................
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