Employers rejoin Danish health and safety system

In June 1998, the employers' "opt-out" from the Danish tripartite health and safety system ended after one year. The new Minister of Labour came to an understanding with employers on the balance of power between the Ministry and the social partners, and has given employers a three-year transitional period on the introduction of new workforce-size thresholds for safety representatives.

On 16 June 1998, the Danish Employers' Confederation (Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening, DA) ended its one-year boycott and decided to re-enter the national health and safety system. The boycott had come as a reaction to the new and amended Work Environment Act adopted on 30 May 1997, which employers viewed as "unacceptable centralism and bureaucracy" (DK9706116N).

The employers' decision to opt out was based on several points of criticism. DA accused the then Minister of Labour, Jytte Andersen, of ignoring the views of the social partners during the preparatory legislative process, and of conducting too hasty a process. Secondly, the enhanced powers granted to the Minister of Labour over the work carried out in the new "branch work environment councils" (Branchearbejdsmiljørådene) was unacceptable to DA. Although the Ministry has the overall responsibility for compliance with the Act, it has been a long-standing tradition to let the social partners play a substantial role and be co-responsible. DA feared that increased intervention and goal-setting by the Minister of Labour would simply transform the social partners from representatives of employers and workers into representatives of the Ministry. The third point of criticism was the lower workforce-size threshold from which companies are obliged to establish a safety organisation and to appoint safety representatives, which was introduced in the amended Act (DK9705111N).

Compromise found

The new Minister of Labour, Ove Hygum, has been able to find a compromise on the two main outstanding issues:

• the Ministry of Labour and DA came to an agreement on the role played by the Ministry and the social partners. Without changing the competencies granted in the Act, the Minister underlined that the branch work environment councils (BWEC s) will be given a large room for manoeuvre, and that the Minister will intervene only if the work of the BWECs is in conflict with the Government's action plan for the work environment; and

• according to the Act, the threshold for companies to establish a safety organisation in the workplace and appoint a safety representative will be lowered from 10 to five employees by 1 July 1998. The Minister has offered employers a three-year transitional period. DA's criticism was well received by the largest trade union in Denmark, the Union of Commercial and Clerical Employees in Denmark (Handel- og Kontorfunktionærernes Forbund i Danmark, HK), which offered employers a dispensation from the Act at HK workplaces. As the largest changes in thresholds are to take place in office-related workplaces, where the former threshold was 20, HK voiced its concern as early as August 1997, fearing that the good intentions of the amended Act might well not be realised, as the union already had problems recruiting new safety representatives. In order to meet the new threshold requirements, HK will have to almost double its number of safety representatives from 3,500 to 7,500.

DA is pleased with the outcome of the compromise, stating that the division of work between the Ministry and the social partners has been cleared up. It is now clear that the independent role of the different councils will be honoured and that their work will be based on the social partners' responsibility and not on central political control.

Commentary

Although the increased frequency of industrial injuries in Denmark - as reported in April 1997 (DK9704107F) - can be attributed to the growth in employment, it nevertheless fuelled the debate and put pressure on the Government. For the Government, as the former Minister of Labour said: "It is simply unacceptable that employees die at work, and that society will have to spend millions on hospital bills - the Government is impatient; now that our economy is improving and more jobs are being created, we would like to see safer workplaces."

Whereas it may have been well-founded for the former Minister of Labour, Jytte Andersen, to have signalled that action was required in this area, it should be acknowledged that such action requires a close involvement of the responsible representatives of workers and employers. After DA's opt-out, regarded by some observers as obstructive, it now seems appropriate that employers should take it upon themselves to prove the former Minister wrong by, for example, illustrating that the new BWECs are able to act without interference from the Ministry.

It is one thing to make the tripartite system work, and another to improve the work "mentality" and compliance with safety requirements at building and construction sites. This seems especially important in a sector which is presently booming and where competition and piecework pay may encourage both workers and employers to overlook safety precautions at the workplace, as these precautions slow progress. While this may be more an issue at smaller building and construction sites, the promotion of a healthy working environment has more than ever topped the agenda at larger sites, such as the Øresund project (building a bridge between Denmark and Sweden). ((Kåre FV Petersen, FAOS)