25 April 2012

Bargaining, 2012: Spotlight on competitiveness and safety in narrow agreements

Research paper by Søren Kaj Andersen (April 2012)

The 2012-bargaining in the private sector in Denmark still under influence of the economic crisis resulted in a very modest agreement for the employees. Salary increases were kept low and the employers' associations clearly stressed the importance of keeping wages and costs at a restrained pace in order to improve the general competitiveness.

Other agreements were largely gathered around a safety theme which the union movement had underlined as their main goal before the bargaining began. This year the focus primarily resulted in agreements for older employees and several educational initiatives in different bargaining areas.

With the narrow agreements in mind combined with a clear majority of yes-votes in favor of the final settlement proposal, although in the light of a historically low election turnout, the scene is set for the coming tripartite negotiations between the employers´ associations, the union movements and the government.

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