Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Denmark (Ratification: 1951)

Article 2 of the Convention. Right of workers, without distinction whatsoever, to join organizations. The Committee had previously requested the Government to clarify whether seafarers not resident in Denmark working on board ships registered at the Danish International Ships Register (DIS) who are individually employed under section 8 of the DIS agreement also have the right to be members of a Danish trade union. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that, whether a seafarer not resident in Denmark working on board DIS ships who is not employed under a collective agreement according to section 10(3) of the DIS Act, may be a member of a Danish trade union, is neither regulated in the DIS Act nor in the DIS agreement, and would thus be determined by the individual trade union in accordance with its own rules. The Committee takes due note of this information.

Observing that two trade union organizations in the Danish merchant fleet have now decided not to sign the current DIS Main Agreement (signatories are: Danish Maritime Officers, Danish Engineers’ Association and Danish Metalworkers’ Union), the Committee notes the indication of the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) that the Government does not address the possibility of a seafarer not resident in Denmark working on board DIS ships to become a member of a Danish trade union that is not party to the DIS Main Agreement. The Committee requests the Government to clarify whether seafarers not resident in Denmark working on board DIS ships, whether employed under a collective agreement according to section 10(3) of the DIS Act or individually employed, have the right to become members of a Danish trade union that is not party to the DIS Main Agreement.

Article 3. Right of workers’ organizations to organize their administration and activities. In several previous direct requests, the Committee requested the Government to provide information on the progress made to ensure that all teachers, regardless of their classification as public servants, may engage in a strike action without penalty. The Committee notes that the Government reiterates in its report that civil servants in Denmark have favourable conditions of employment including a favourable pension scheme, and that giving teachers the right to strike would require a major change of the system so as to maintain the balance of the total set of employment conditions for civil servants, which does not seem expedient, since the employment of teachers as civil servants was discontinued in 1993 for new appointments and the number of teachers employed under the Civil Servant Act is continuously decreasing due to retirement (at present 10,684 teachers are employed as civil servants; in six years, this group is expected to include approximately 2,500 persons and will eventually become extinct). Recalling that the right to strike may be restricted or even prohibited in the case of public servants exercising authority in the name of the State, and that teachers are not included in this category, the Committee, taking into account that the category of teachers employed as civil servants is steadily decreasing and will eventually become extinct, hopes that the Government will take the necessary steps to ensure that no sanctions are imposed in practice against teachers with civil servant status who have recourse to strike action.