Enforcement of labour clauses by public authorities
In a new report, Trine P. Larsen, Jens Arnholtz, and Bjarne Refslund examine the use of labour clauses in cleaning and guard services in Denmark. The report is the Danish part of a larger EU project, ProCureFair, which analyses the use of labour clauses in a number of European countries.
Labour clauses are quite common when Danish authorities purchase services such as cleaning, security service, construction etc. These clauses place demands on pay and working conditions for employees in companies that provide services to the public sector. However, the control of labour clauses is often a challenging task for many public authorities because they do not have experience in controlling wages and working conditions and because control efforts often require resources that may seem disproportionate to what has been purchased.
The Danish country report from the international ProCureFair project analyse the use of labour clauses in cleaning and guard services. Through interviews and four case studies, the report sheds light on how Danish authorities are experimenting with ensuring orderly pay and working conditions through better enforcement of labour clauses. On the one hand, the report highlights a variety of innovative actions taken by public authorities to improve enforcement. On the other hand, the report also shows that challenges remain, partly due to the absence of systematic cooperation between the authorities responsible for describing and enforcing labour clauses and the employers’ organisations and trade unions that have defined the terms and conditions on which the labour clauses are based.
Read a summary from the Danish report 'PROCURFAIR Snapshot Denmark'.
Read the Danish report 'PROCUFAIR Country report Denmark’ by Bjarke Refslund, Aalborg University, Trine P. Larsen, University of Warwick/FAOS and Jens Arnholtz, FAOS.
Read more about the entire PROCURFAIR Project and country reports from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom.