Falck rescue workers reject collective agreement

In June 2000, ambulance workers and firefighter employed by Denmark's Falck private rescue company went on strike, having twice rejected agreements concluded by their trade union, SiD, and the AHTS employers' organisation. The reasons for rejection were cooperation problems with Falck management and a wage system which did not reflect the work performance, on a 24-hour basis, of individual crew members. The dispute also to some extent reflected dissatisfaction with the four-year agreement for the transport sector concluded earlier in 2000 by SiD. A third compromise agreement seemed likely to be approved in a ballot on 23 June.

Falcks Redningstjeneste is Denmark's largest private rescue service, cooperating closely with public ambulance services and fire brigades. It is currently negotiating over a merger with the UK-based security company "Group 4". On 31 May 2000, 3,600 ambulance staff and firefighters employed by Falck started a strike, having given the legally required notice, in a dispute over failure to agree on a new four-year collective agreement, poor cooperative relations with management and untransparent wage practices. Pay for work at night and weekends and on public holidays was a central issue.

Early in May, the Falck employees had rejected an agreement concluded by their trade union, the General Workers' Union in Denmark (Specialarbejderforbundet i Danmark, SiD) and the Employers' Federation for Trade, Transport and Service (Arbejdsgiverforeningen for Handel, Transport og Service, AHTS), which Falck had joined three years ago. Three weeks later - on 26 May - the workers rejected a compromise agreement proposed by the Public Conciliator, Asbjørn Jensen and submitted a strike notice. The compromise agreement had been recommended by SiD. At midnight on 31 May, the crew members went on a large-scale strike, which hit all 133 Falck rescue stations. In practice, a little more than half of the 3,600 employees went on strike, while the remainder made up an emergency staff to ensure the provision of vital services. The strike mainly hit transport of patients and assistance to cars in distress. While the two sides were meeting to renegotiate, the strike reached a climax when Falck crew members picketed several taxi companies and stopped transport carried out by taxi drivers at some hospitals. At the same time, SiD issued a first notice of sympathy action by SiD members against Falck's cooperation partners, in order to put pressure on the company.

Twice before the start of the strike, SiD had accepted a compromise with AHTS and now the parties had to go to the negotiating table for the third time, against a background of complaints by some members that SiD was not doing a proper job. In their defence, the SiD negotiators argued that workforce-management cooperation problems as such are not an issue to be taken up during negotiations, but should be resolved at individual workplaces.

Third and last agreement

On 8 June, a third agreement was concluded between SiD and AHTS. SiD had done its homework and obtained the employers' acceptance of new terms on six out of eight issues on which the strikers had demanded changes. The most important point was that the new compromise - on which a membership ballot was due to take place on 23 June - introduced a new wage system which will make it more visible that work during unsocial hours is compensated by higher wages. According to the union negotiators, the wage pool is more or less the same, but the wage differentials have been slightly increased so that those who are affected by the inconvenience of working on different duty rosters will be properly compensated. By way of example, some emergency crews exclusively work day shifts with only one evening on duty every second week, while others have 12 hours' night duty every third evening all the year around, including public holidays.

The new pay system allows for the introduction of a form of qualification-based wage which will take into account factors such as education or special work functions, but without leading to fully individually-fixed wages, which would lead to the breakdown of the framework for the collective agreement. There will be a transitional period, as the system is to come into operation in 2002, and it was expected that the compromise would be approved with a comfortable majority on 23 June. Both the representatives of the crew members and the SiD negotiators had prepared well on this occasion - and with good reason. A third rejection of a compromise would probably also be the last rejection. The Danish Employers' Confederation (Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening, DA) could then give notice of sympathy action in the form of a lock-out and this would be highly likely to lead to an immediate reaction in the form of government intervention.

Commentary

The AHTS negotiators expressed no understanding for the strike, arguing that SiD had accepted the original compromise agreement after certain adjustments. This was an allusion to the problem which SiD has had in the transport sector ever since the conclusion of the new collective agreements during the spring 2000 bargaining round (DK0002167F). The transport sector is a so-called "normal wage" area; this means that the most important terms concerning pay and working conditions are negotiated centrally and are generally not the subject of further negotiations at local level, as occurs in the remainder of the labour market. This is why the collective agreements in the transport sector are normally concluded for a period of two years. This time, a four-year agreement was concluded - as in the other sectors covered by DA and the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisationen i Danmark, LO). The ink had hardly dried on the agreement before SiD started to have problems with its rank-and-file members. Bus drivers would not accept less advantageous provisions on working time organisation and took unlawful strike action (DK0003169N). This dispute has broken out again from time to time in different places since. The Falck dispute shows that these problems have not been overcome. With the new wage system which is to come into operation in 2002, the third compromise agreement at Falck - which is expected to be approved in a ballot - looks very much like a two-year renewal of the existing collective agreement. (Carsten Jørgensen, FAOS)