Testing The Danish Model – a case study of the CSC-conflict

Research paper by Anna Ilsøe (February 2012)

Although the number of conflicts on the Danish labour market in general is low, we now see more examples of workplace conflicts over pay reductions. One of the significant examples is the re-negotiation of two company agreements between CSC, a US-owned IT-company, and PROSA, the union for IT-professionals in Denmark, which led to a large conflict in spring 2011.

Drawing on document studies and 10 interviews with employer- and employee representatives involved in the conflict this research paper investigates the causes and consequences of the conflict. The analysis addresses three questions: 1) Does the conflict break with the rules of conflict within The Danish Model of labour market regulations? 2) Why is the conflict not solved at the bargaining table? And 3) What are the perspectives of the conflict for Danish labour market regulation in the future? Theoretically the research paper is based on the work by Due & Madsen (1993; 2006), which defines and discusses the concept of The Danish Model, and the work by Walton & McKersie (1965; 1994) that identifies different forms of collective bargaining at company level.

The analysis demonstrates that the conflict does not break with the rules of conflict in The Danish Model. However, the negotiations at company level between CSC and PROSA deviate from a core characteristic of the model – the central coordination of negotiations. The research paper concludes by discussing the implications of further centralisation/decentralisation of negotiations in Denmark and other countries in the Western world in times of decreasing union bargaining power.

The research paper is published by FAOS, Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen (in Danish only).