OK26: Settlement reached in the state sector

The Danish government, led by Minister for Finance Nicolai Wammen, and the employee side, led by the Central Organisation Committee (CFU) and Akademikerne, have now reached an agreement covering the state's 200,000 employees for the next three years.

The agreement has a total financial framework of 8.9 per cent including a technical correction of 0.2 per cent over the three-year period, most of which will go towards general salary increases.

Malene Matthison-Hansen, chair of the IDA Council of Employees, negotiated on behalf of IDA. She is very pleased with the result.

‘Our most important task has been to ensure real wage growth, and we have succeeded in doing so. This is crucial for our members' everyday lives, their working lives and their financial security,’ she says.

‘It has been really difficult, and we have experienced considerable political pressure from the government during these negotiations. But we have succeeded in reaching an agreement that secures our three highest priority demands and ensures that the Danish model will continue to govern the development of salaries and working conditions in the public sector,’ says Malene Matthison-Hansen.

Malene Matthison-Hansen points out that IDA entered the negotiations with three clear demands: a guarantee of real earnings; better opportunities to balance work and leisure time; and, finally, the creation of a free choice scheme in the state sector that not only gives employees the right to convert salary into pension, but also the right to time off.

‘We have had all three demands met in the negotiations, and we are extremely satisfied with that,’ says Malene Matthison-Hansen.

In concrete terms, the free choice scheme functions as a savings scheme, where the employer continuously pays a percentage of the holiday-entitled salary. Employees can decide for themselves how the money should be used – it can be as extra salary, days off or an extra pension contribution.

'Our members have called for higher salaries and more flexibility in their working lives. We are delivering on those demands. We are implementing a number of improvements that will make a difference to our members' everyday lives. Both now and in the years to come,' says Malene Matthison-Hansen, who is also pleased that the collective agreement includes the option of paid leave on a child's third sick day.

‘We fought to have this included as an unconditional right in the agreement text. We did not succeed, but it is still an improvement in the conditions for families with children that we got it included as an option,’ says Malene Matthison-Hansen.

'There has been a great deal of political focus on accommodating special groups in the Danish Armed Forces. For me, it is crucial that we look at the overall package. We have achieved our highest priority goals, and at the same time we have taken responsibility and agreed to provide extraordinary funds to other professional groups in the Armed Forces,' she says.

Now the work continues in municipalities and regions.