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Danish government sues EU over minimum wage

Denmark’s government on Wednesday brought a case requesting annulment of the EU’s minimum wage directive.

Published: 18 January 2023 16:36 CET

Danish government sues EU over minimum wage

Denmark will seek to have the EU's minimum wage directive annulled by the EU Court. File photo: JOHN THYS / AFP

The Danish lawsuit was confirmed by the Ministry of Employment in a press statement.

The case was expected as it was part of the policy agreement for the coalition government, signed in December. The deadline to bring the case against the EU Court in Luxembourg was Wednesday.

An annulment suit is an attempt to have the directive revoked on the grounds that it is in breach of the EU Treaty.

An EU directive on minimum wages was adopted in October last year but Denmark and Sweden are both opposed because of the established labour models in those two countries, by which wages are set through negotiations between trade unions and employers.

The EU Commission has stated that it will respect the Danish model and will not force the country to code a minimum wage into law, but the Danish government wants the directive to be removed completely.

READ ALSO: Why is Denmark opposed to an EU minimum wage law?

“It’s important to underline that the directive does not force Denmark to introduce a minimum wage,” Employment Minister Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen said in the statement.

“But despite that, this is a case of legislation without precedent, which makes it a principal case. We insist that wages must be set in Denmark and not the EU,” she said.

“The government has therefore decided that the EU Court must rule on this case,” she said.

The ministry said the process could take up to two years. The date on which the case will be taken up by the EU Court is yet to be set.

The directive sets an EU-wide minimum wage. The intention is that workers are given a fair minimum wage either by law or through collective bargaining.

The directive includes a requirement for member countries to produce an action plan if collective bargaining agreements cover less than 80 percent of working terms in the relevant country.

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'Tinder for jobs': EU's new job scheme for non-EU workers moves step closer

At a meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg, the EU Council, which includes representatives of each of the 27 member states, agreed a joint position on the proposal, referred to as “Tinder for jobs” by EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson.

The Council will now begin negotiating with the European Parliament to agree on the final legislative text on the proposal, which is part of the EU’s broader skills and talent mobility package.

What’s the scheme?

“This will not replace anything but it will be an additional tool to make recruitment from outside the EU easier,” Johannes Kleis, a press officer at the European Council, told The Local. “It should help to overcome some barriers that employers might find if they look for staff outside the EU, and this portal will be an easier entry point for third country jobseekers.”

In a press release announcing the agreement, the Council said it hoped to reconcile principles of fair recruitment with a secure and comprehensive migration system while also “reinforcing the position of the European Union in the global race for talent”.

READ ALSO: The new scheme to help non-EU nationals find jobs in Europe

The EU’s Home Affairs Commission Ylva Johansson hsa described the Talent Portal as ‘Tinder for jobs’. Photo: Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP

The idea is to set up an EU-wide online platform where jobseekers from outside the EU can set up profiles detailing their skills, qualifications, work experience and which languages they speak. Employers from all participating member states will then be able to post up jobs to the platform.

Only job vacancies involving skills or professions where member states or the EU as a whole have declared a labour shortage will be listed on the platform.

The Talent Pool will be designed to help EU employers overcoming some of the challenges of recruiting internationally by helping ensure the “accuracy, quality and comparability” of the foreign applicants’ qualifications and skills. It will also help applicants overcome some of their current difficulties in “accessing and understanding information about recruitment processes” as well as reducing costs.

The Talent Pool is not intended to set up a common work permit system, with anyone who gets a job through the platform still having to apply for a regular work permit in the country where they find a job.

The Council has added several new proposals to the system put forward by the European Commission in November, setting up a withdrawal procedure through which member states can leave the Talent Pool after giving six month’s notice.

The Council also wants to empower member states to be able to decide whether individual employers can post up vacancies, whether private employment agencies can do so, or whether only state-run national employment agencies can do so.

What happens next?

“We’re at the beginning,” Kleis said. “The European Parliament and the Council will now have to sit together to agree on the legal text, and that will happen after the summer. From the Council side, this is the first step but the legislation has yet to be agreed on. So there a lot more hoops to jump through.”

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