Ahead of the others - The gymnasium teachers union and the 2013 collective bargaining round

Research paper by Mikkel Mailand

The 2013 collective bargaining round in the public sector was one of the most conflict-prone in the history of the Danish model. The conflicts where, however, mostly limited to the education areas. In the primary/secondary school area the public employers’ wish transfer the issue of the use working time from being an issue of collective bargaining to a management prerogative was only met after failed negotiations, failed arbitration, a four –and-a-half week lockout and finally intervention by law. In relation to the gymnasiums, the gymnasium teachers’ trade union accepted to give up their right to bargain on the use of the working time during the negotiations. They did so because they estimated that they were going to lose it the one way or the other and were granted with pay increases.

Both the bargaining process and the outcome have been highly controversial for the gymnasium teachers union. This research report analyses and discuss the bargaining process.

Read the research paper (in Danish only)