Social Services, Equality, Denmark

(June 2016) Over 1900 activists from the FOA public services union met in Odense on 9 June to discuss the impact of cuts in spending on care for the elderly and childcare. Eldercare has been particularly hard hit creating a massive increases in workloads and major problems with stress. The proportion of FOA members who feel stressed, has more than doubled, from 9 percent in 2010 to 19 percent in 2015, while last year 72 percent of FOA members said that their workload had increased in the past year.The union discussed what initiatives to take and in particular how to alert the public to the

(July 2016) The FOA public services union estimates that over 1000 workers have been affected by bankruptices in the care home sector over the past three years. Workers are affected by uncertainty about jobs, pay and conditions. The collapse of Pareta Care that operates facilities in the Egedal local authority is the latest in a series of failures involving 22 companies since early 2013. The union reckons that over 9500 care home residents have been affected. Read more at FOA (DK).

(August 2016) The FOA public services union is planning strike action against the DK Pleje care company unless it agrees to negotiate a collective agreement. The company has so far refused to negotiate with FOA and is paying its workers less than other companies in the sector that apply the relevant collective agreement. This had lead to other companies being undercut and losing contracts with local authorities. One recent case involved BakkeBo Hjemmepleje which does negotiate with FOA but which lost out to DK-Care and as a result went bankrupt. Read more at FOA (DK) on the planned strike and

(August 2016) Unions in the LO trade union confederation, including 3F, HK and Dansk Metal are commited to solidarity action with the FOA public services union with its planned strike at the DK-Pleje care company on 1 September. FOA has called the action in protest at the company's refusal to negotiate and its failure to implement the relevant collective agreement. FOA says the company is paying lower hourly rates as well as cutting back on overtime, on-call and other payments. Read more at FOA (DK).

It has taken three and a half years and legal action by the FOA public service union to ensure that care workers finally get the money they owed from their employer, Kaerkommen, which went bust in 2015. The 77 workers were owed around DK 12 million (EUR 1.6m) in pay and holiday allowance but the public authorities - municipalities on the one-hand and the wage guarantee fund on the other - refused to take responsibility for the compensation. The court ruled that the wage guarantee fund should pay up and the employment minister has now drafted new legislation to cover such cases and ensure that

The FOA public services union has criticised the government for failing to come up with any concrete and urgent measures to tackle the shortage of health and social care staff particularly in eldercare. The government announced a major mapping exercise in July last year that was aimed at identifying the challenges facing municipalities. The resulting report adds little to the facts and figures that the unions have produced over the years to warn of the scale of staff shortages. The FOA also argues that the promised DKK 150 million (EUR 20 million) to help boost recruitment is inadequate, being

A major conflict across the public sector was avoided as trade unions negotiated new agreements covering state, local and regional government workers. Some elements of the agreements are the same with an overall package worth 8.1% over three years. This figure includes a basic increase for all workers but also elements directly specifically at low paid workers and jobs predominantly done by women. An important element is the change in the rules linking pay developments to those in the public sector with the guarantee now that pay will move fully in parallel rather than only guaranteeing a part

The FOA public services union has very much welcomed the significant increases to pay for health and social care assistants and trainees as a result of the recently negotiated public sector collective agreements. While all workers will benefit from the the overall 8.1% increase over three years, specific increases set out in the agreements will mean that health and social service assistants will see increases of 13% over the period and trainees will get pay rises of between 14% and 19%. The union believes these are important steps in revaluing low paid jobs in the sector and also making the

Many public service unions from across Europe have sent solidarity messages to their colleagues in Denmark for their mass meeting today (22 March). All public service unions have mobilised to bring together an estimated 10000 workplace representatives to discuss their tactics in the current industrial dispute. With negotiations stalled the unions had planned to organise tartgeted strike action in April, should current attempts at mediation fail. In response, the employers have threatened a massive lockout. While the unions had planned to involve around 10% of workers in the action, the

Public sector unions brought together over 10000 shop stewards to debate the way forward in the current conflict over pay and conditions. When the employers failed to come up with an offer on pay, negotiations broke down and a mediator was called in. The unions announced that strike action would take place on 4 April if mediation didn't work. The action would be targeted and involve only 10%-15% of public sector workers. In response, the employers said that they would implement a massive lockout on 14 April covering 90% of state workers and 50% of municipal workers. Mediation is continuing

The mediator in the public sector pay dispute has extended the official period of mediation. Unless she decides to end the mediation early then this means that the unions cannot take any strike action until 6 May and employers cannot impose their threatened lockout until 12 May. In the meantime unions are still mobilising their activists and public services union FOA organised a meeting of 2000 worker representatives which reaffirmed their determination to push for a real wage increase as well as special measures to address low pay and pay in occupations dominated by women.

Public services union FOA has called on municipalities to address the employment shortage in health and social care by offering more full-time jobs. The union has published figures indicating that only 20% of jobs offered in the sector last year were full-time despite the increased demands and despite around 20% of FOA members wanting to work longer hours. The union believes that employers prefer the flexibility of employing two part-time workers rather than one full timer.

A survey of staffing levels in nursing homes has revealed a wide variation in standards across Denmark. Commenting on the survey, public services union FOA says that it raises serious questions about both the quality of care and the pressure on workers, particularly those on the night shift, who in some areas may have responsibility for three times as many residents as their colleagues in other regions. The variation from best to worst is 12 residents per employee to 30 residents per employee. The union hopes that the comprehensive survey will help put pressure on municipalities to improve

The FOA public services union is calling on the government and municipalities to take urgent action to tackle staffing shortages in eldercare. A recent survey found that three out of four local authorities didn't have enough eldercare staff and the situation is set to deteriorate as many workers retire. The sector needs around 13000 new recruits every year but the level is currently half that. The union says that employers use a lot of part-time work to save money and while many employees in the sector actually want to work full time. There is also a question of higher pay for young workers.