Ministry of Employment’s Program 2017/2018

As is tradition the first Tuesday of October, the government’s legislative program for the coming parliamentary year is presented. This also applies for legislation covering employees.    

The Danish Parliament reopened yesterday as always on the first Tuesday in October. This year 3 October 2017. The Danish Prime Minister gave his oral opening statement and furthermore the headlines for the bills, which Parliament has on the agenda for the coming year 2017/2018 are presented. The written part of the report gives a brief summary of the bills and proposals for parliamentary decisions that the government expects to make during the parliamentary year.

For the Ministry of Employment, which deals with labour market topics, the main changes are as follows:

An amendment to the Danish Holiday Act. Among other things, the Holiday Act Committee, which has worked on a large report proposes that all employees have a right to paid holiday already in the first year of employment. Thus, the accrual year and holiday year shall coincide so that employees earn and take their vacation in the same year (simultaneous holiday) opposed to the rules, which are applicable today. The bill now has to be negotiated in Parliament, and the Minister of Employment has announced that he hopes that the legislative work can be completed by the end of the year.

The amendment of the Vacation Act aims to ensure simpler and more modern rules for holiday that are in accordance with Denmark’s international obligations. Already in 2015 the European Commission has stated that the Danish Holiday Act is contrary to Article 7 of the Directive on working time (Directive 2003/88 / EC).

In consequence of the amendment to the Danish Holiday Act, an amendment to the Act on Unemployment Insurance, the Act on Sickness Allowance, the Act on Maternity Leave and the Act on Active Social Policy will also have to be amended. The purpose of the bill is to change the rules on holiday pay, holiday allowances and the rules for unemployment benefits during vacation in connection with the amendment of the Holiday Act. The purpose is also to compensate private employers for expenses in connection with the amendment of the Holiday Act.

Secondly, there are proposals for amendments to the sickness benefit legislation, whereby the employer’s access to sickness benefit matters is going to be reduced, so that employers’ access to non-relevant information about employee sicknesses is limited or cut off.

Other bills include the amendment of the Working Environment Act.

In relation to employees, it is also worth paying attention to the Data Protection Act, which will partly replace the Personal Data Act from 25 May 2018. The Data Protection Act will, once it is passed, supplement the EU Regulation (GDPR) with Danish supplementary rules among other things special rules concerning employment matters. This piece of legislation derives from the Danish Ministry of Justice.

We will continuously inform about the negotiations of the government’s bill in the new parliamentary year.