Collective agreement for municipal employees in OK26

On 3 March, IDA reached an agreement on a new three-year collective agreement for IDA's approximately 5,400 employees in the municipal sector. 
 
Malene Matthison-Hansen, IDA's political negotiator in OK26 and chair of the Council of Employees, says about the process:
 
'IDA has entered into negotiations on new collective agreements with Akademikerne with the ambition of securing real salary growth and increased flexibility for our members. We have now succeeded in doing so in the municipal sector, both in terms of real salary growth and a number of measures that will give individual members in Denmark's municipalities more flexibility in their working lives. This has been a major wish of our members, and we have delivered on it,' she says.

The agreement between Akademikerne, of which IDA is a member, and Local Government Denmark (KL) includes the following:

An economic framework and general salary increases

• A total economic framework of 9.09%, including a technical correction of 0.2%.
• General salary increases totalling 6.27% have been agreed for the period.
• Inflation is estimated at 4.4 per cent for the period, and a significant increase in real earnings is therefore expected.

Implementation of the general salary increases

• 3.06% in 2026, including a technical correction of 0.2% relating to non-inclusion of voluntary contributions in part of the private labour market in Statistics Denmark's calculation of private pay developments.
• 0.75% in 2027
• 2.3% in 2028
• 0.16% in 2029
• The increases will be implemented by raising the percentage adjustment. The increases assume that the regulation scheme will be implemented as expected.

Other key results

• A flexible account with the option to choose between salary, pension and time off, as well as a new flexible day for employees in the middle of their careers.
• A child's third sick day and time off on the day a child is called home sick.
• An additional two weeks of paid parental leave to be shared between parents and modernised parental leave conditions that take into account that families can look very different and have very different needs.
• Periodic project on how the collective agreement can support the recruitment and retention of professional and academic specialists.
• Renewal and modernisation of the agreement on well-being and health in the workplace, including the right to a life stage interview.
  

IDA achieved its three most important demands

Malene Matthison-Hansen points out that IDA entered the negotiations with three clear demands:

• Securing real earnings.
• Better opportunities to balance work and leisure time
• The establishment of a Free Choice Salary Account in the public sector, which not only gives the right to convert salary into pension, but also the right to time off.

'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 taking paid leave on a child's third day of illness.

At the same time, a Free Choice Salary Account will be created in the municipal sector. In concrete terms, it functions as a savings account into which the employer regularly pays a percentage of the employee's holiday-entitled salary. The employee can decide how the money is to be used – it can be used as extra pay, holiday days, senior or care days, or a payment into an extra pension scheme.

Read: Municipal agreement (in Danish)

Read: Fact sheet municipalities (in Danish)