By Martin Lassen-Vernal and Brendan Sweeney
Many Danes feel pressurised to join a particular trade union, and some 11 per cent of respondents from Krifa, a Christian trade union - which offers cheaper fees than most of the larger unions – believe that they have been directly discriminated against because of their membership.
This figure is even higher for employees in the public sector where 18 per cent say that they have experienced discrimination because of their membership of Krifa.
These are some of the results of a new report on discrimination relating to trade union membership which the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) presented on Tuesday. The report is based on legal analyses, individual interviews and surveys, including a survey of 1376 Danish employees carried out by Megafon.
The Director of DIHR, Jonas Christoffersen, commented on the human rights issues raised by the report: “The right to join a trade union and to be protected from discrimination based on one’s trade union membership is covered by human rights legislation, but in Denmark there is in practice too little protection of the right to freely choose a trade union or to completely opt out of joining a trade union.”
Based on the new report, DIHR has put forward a number of recommendations. The Institute believes that the current Danish law on freedom of association should be extended to apply to periods of employment. DIHR also recommends that the Danish government amend the law prohibiting discrimination in the workplace, so that it can be extended to include prohibition of discrimination because of union membership.
Finally, the Institute recommends the establishment of safeguards within the public sector to help ensure that equality and objectivity requirements are always observed.
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