Can organizing and collective bargaining coverage alleviate recruitment problems?
A new report focuses on organizing, collective bargaining coverage and labor shortages in the child and elderly care sectors in Denmark. The report is the first part of an EU project that, among other things, examines levels of organization, collective bargaining coverage and initiatives targeting labor shortages in the two sectors in a number of European countries.
The comparative EU-funded project ‘Developing Collective Bargaining in the Care Sector’ (DEVCOBA) examines the role of the social partners in increasing membership and strengthening collective bargaining coverage, thereby possibly improving job quality and addressing labor shortages in the child and elderly care sector.
The Danish report shows that the vast majority of institutions in the child and elderly care sector are public, while private non-profit and for-profit providers play a smaller role. Trade union membership and collective bargaining coverage are high, although collective bargaining coverage is somewhat lower among the private providers. Fragmentation in the two areas is limited, as they are dominated by a single employer organization, few trade unions and a small number of collective agreements with a high coverage rate. The picture among self-governing organizations and private providers is, however, more fragmented.
Labor shortage
In recent years, labor shortage has developed into one of the highest priority themes in both areas. Especially in elder care, the government and the social partners – individually, together and in cooperation with other actors – have developed a wide range of initiatives to address recruitment problems.
The overview report will be followed up by reports on initiatives that have been implemented to address the labor shortage, and employees' experiences of working conditions and challenges. A final report will compare the conditions across the countries studied, which in addition to Denmark include the Netherlands, Italy, Slovakia, Spain and Germany.
Read the full report ‘DEVCOBA WP2 Country Report DENMARK’ by Mikkel Mailand, published by University of Milano. The report was completed in February 2025.
Read more about Devcoba on the project website.