Trade unions and precarious work
- Danish country report to the BARSORI-project
Research paper by Mikkel Mailand & Trine P. Larsen (December 2011)
In recent years the Danish labour market has become more diverse, although the number of some types of non-regular contracts has diminished during the crisis. Some employees with non-regular labour contracts seem to face a greater risk of unemployment, low paid jobs, restricted access to social security benefits and limited opportunities for career advancements than their peers in permanent full-time positions.
Most of the non-standard employment types analysed in this research paper are somewhat related to a risk of precariousness. This is the case for some types of part-time employment, fixed-term contracts, some types of self-employment, temporary agency work, teleworking, au pairs and to a lesser extent flex jobs. However, not all employees covered by these employment types related to the risk of precariousness should be seen as precarious workers.
Over the years the Danish trade unions have had difficulties in deciding how to address non-standard and precarious work. Ignoring the differences between unions and focusing on the trade union movements' strategies towards non-standard and precarious work in general, these strategies have in general developed during the last 10 to 20 years from trying to reduce these types of employment towards trying to improve them. However, this development is not seen to the same extent with regard to all types of precarious employment. In some cases, the previous strategy does still exist - this is the case with some types of the self-employed - and in some cases the old and the new strategy coexist.
Apart from on this overall level, it is difficult to draw a general picture of the Danish trade unions' policies on precarious work. LO - the largest trade union confederation - has until very recently not had a general overarching strategy on non-standard or precarious work. Nor does the issue of non-standard employment have a high priority among the member-organisations. However, some member-organisations have nevertheless developed strategies and taken actions in different areas. Furthermore, there are indications that both LO's and their member-organisations' interest in the issue has increased very recently.
The research paper includes four cases of trade union strategies on precarious work. The first case focuses on trade unions attempts to organize Polish constructions workers. The second case is about the trade unions attempts to improve the wages and conditions of temporary agency workers in the manufacturing industry by extending collective bargaining coverage to these. The third case examines the largest Danish trade union confederation's (LOs) attempts to improve the conditions of youth workers by checking the employing companies' compliance with law and collective agreements. The fourth case focuses on the trade unions' attempts to improve social rights of part-time employees at Danish universities.
Some of the four cases selected illustrate the partial development in trade unions' strategies from trying to prevent to trying to improve. Moreover, the cases include success-stories as well as failures and less successful cases; they address the challenges the trade unions face in terms of resource issues; illustrate dilemmas about what decision making arenas to use; describe the trade unions' choices about how to organise the actions; raise questions about the responsibilities of confederations versus member-organisations; and point to the importance of the employers' attitudes to trade union strategies.
The research paper is the Danish contribution to the EU-financed project 'Bargaining for Social Rights' (BARSORI). The project focuses on trade union strategies towards non-standard and precarious work in six EU member states.
Download the research paper (pdf)
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