Annual collective bargaining is set to kick off on 6 January 2025. The Central Organization of Industrial Employees in Denmark, CO-industri, will begin talks with the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) on 6 January over the so-called "breakthrough agreement", which traditionally sets the ground for salary increases among all unionised workers in the country. This is because industrial workers are the most exposed to international competition, meaning that if unions insist on excessively high wage increases, they risk putting companies out of business and so losing their members their jobs. Unions for other sectors typically either accept the same pay rise as industrial workers or demand slightly more. The talks this year will be impacted by the current shortage of labour, which will mean that working hours and job flexibility will be almost as high up on the agenda as salary levels.
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For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.