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WORKING IN DENMARK

Denmark announces new rules for working from home

New rules for people who work from home in Denmark have been announced following an agreement between a majority of political parties.

Published: 7 February 2022 17:29 CET
New rules announced by the Danish government adjust requirements for businesses to provide equipment for staff who use screens to work from home.
New rules announced by the Danish government adjust requirements for businesses to provide equipment for staff who use screens to work from home. Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

The Danish Ministry of Employment announced the new rules in a statement on Monday afternoon after the government and centre-left ally the Social Liberals (Radikale Venstre) agreed on terms with the opposition Liberal (Venstre), Conservative and Danish People’s parties.

The new rules are particularly important for people who use a screen for working from home.

Employees of companies are allowed to use their own equipment to work from home provided the equipment fulfils certain standards.

If it does not meet the standards set out in the new agreement, employers are obliged to provide the necessary hardware.

Under the outgoing rules, that rule applies for employees who work from home once a week or more.

The new rules relax this, meaning the employer must only provide equipment for staff who work from home or at other fixed places of work at an average of more than two days per week over the course of a month.

The change in rules, expected to take effect at the end of April, allow more flexibility for people who work on their screens at several different locations, the ministry said in the statement.

“I am pleased that we have now found a political and balanced solution which gives both more flexibility and consideration to employees with varying places of work,” Employment Minister Peter Hummelgaard said in the statement.

“We are now making the rules for home working more up-to-date so they reflect the labour market of today in which work for certain types of staff can be done at many different places and not just at the office,” he said.

A trade union which counts many office workers among its members slammed the decision to ease requirement on companies who have staff working from home.

“I am simply shaken,” Mads Samsing, the deputy leader of the trade union, HK, said to broadcaster DR.

“In practice, this is exclusively about employers wanting to get off cheaply by pushing their costs over to staff,” Samsing said.

The Danish Chamber of Commerce (Dansk Erhverv) was more positive.

“We (now) have a sensible and balanced set of rules for home working. It’s a set of rules which is easy to understand,” the organisation’s deputy director Laurits Rønn said to DR.

Hummelgaard said in the ministry statement that the rules would be reviewed again next year.

READ ALSO: Can you take sick leave in Denmark if your child is ill?

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WORKING IN DENMARK

Why are Danish experts recommending closure of all job centres?

Recommendations made by an expert commission to the government on employment and welfare advocate for closure of all municipal job centres.

Published: 24 June 2024 17:32 CEST
Why are Danish experts recommending closure of all job centres?

Denmark’s job centres, which are responsible for administration of social welfare benefits for people seeking employment and of facilitating training and work placements under welfare lows, should be closed according to recommendations handed to the government on Monday.

Additionally, over half of the current rules related to unemployment benefits should be scrapped and 9 in 10 sanctions for people who fail to comply with criteria such as attending meetings or applying for a set number of jobs.

Denmark has two broad tiers for those out of work: dagpenge, which provides an income calculated on the person’s tax payments while in employment, and the more basic kontanthjælp.

Dagpenge is available to people who a paying members of a semi-private uninsurance provider called an Arbejdsløshedskasse or A-kasse, while kontanthjælp is available to everyone.

Both groups must comply with legal requirements related to job searching in order to receive the benefits they qualify for – these are administered by municipal job centres.

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When the coalition government took office at the end of 2022 it stated that it wanted to save three billion kroner annually by reforming the municipal unemployment area and improving its efficiency – specifically by targeting job centres.

This has led to an expert group, appointed by the government, making six specific requirements – those announce on Monday.

The government is not obliged to follow the recommendations.

But the expert group says there is much to gain from closing job centres.

“There’s great potential in replacing the current one-size-fits-all system with a new approach where individual needs are in focus,” group chairperson Claus Thustrup Kreiner said in a press statement.

The six broad recommendations are as follows:

  • Fewer target groups and special rules
  • Individual programmes
  • More balanced sanctions system
  • Abolish job centres and introduce free organisation at municipalities
  • Give more influence to A-kasse and private interests
  • Results, not system-based approach

|Source: DR

“Our report includes recommendations for the biggest reform of the jobseeking area ever, and will make the system cheaper, simpler and more dignified without weakening employment,” Kreiner said.

The national confederation for trade unions, Fagbevægelsens Hovedorganisation (FH), criticised the costcutting element of the recommendations in comments to broadcaster DR, and also said it would reduce the options and rights of jobseekers.

“I thought this was about giving unemployed people more freedom to decide what they need,” FH chairperson Nanna Højlund said.

“But the expert group clearly sees it as being about allowing municipalities to do exactly what they want,” she said.

The Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) welcomed the proposals.

“The expert group has proposed a simplification of employment with fewer rules and benefit categories and with a large saving” DI deputy director Steen Nielsen said in a statement.

“That is a good idea because it’s difficult to run a job centre efficiently with the many different criteria and rules that must be met for each of the many categories,” he added.

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