Skatteudvalget 2019-20, Skatteudvalget 2019-20, Skatteudvalget 2019-20
L 72 , L 72 A , L 72 B
Offentligt
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Case no. 18-3279
Our ref. PWA
16 September 2019
Comments from FH
–
Danish Trade Union Confederation
–
on the
government’s report regarding
ILO Conventions 87 and 98
In the following FH
–
Danish Trade Union Confederation
–
present its comments to the Danish
government’s report on Conventions 87 and 98 regarding the right to organise and the right to
collective bargaining.
By way of introduction, FH refers to earlier contributions from LO
–
The Danish Confederations
of Trade Unions to reports on the DIS-Act
–
most recently in September 2016 and the
subsequent comments/updates regarding the government’s comments to the ILO to
this date.
The independent Committee of Experts in its 2016 report
requested
the Danish government to
make every effort to ensure full respect of the principles of free and voluntary collective
bargaining so that Danish trade unions could freely represent all their members in collective
bargaining process
–
Danish or equated residents as well as non-residents, working on ships
sailing under Danish flag
–
and that collective agreements concluded by Danish trade unions
may cover all their members working on ships sailing under Danish flag regardless of
residence.
The Committee of experts also
requested
the Danish government to engage in national
tripartite national dialogue and to take the necessary measures to enable all the relevant
worker’s and employer’s
organisations to participate therein, if they so wish, so as to find a
mutually satisfactory way forward, and to indicate in its next report its outcome and any
contemplated measures.
FH finds it deeply regrettable that the Danish government for more than 30 years now, based
on varying arguments, has refrained from taking seriously the criticism of the Committee of
Experts and the call to bring article 10 of the DIS-Act
in accordance with the ILO’s
conventions.
Convention 98
In the report on Convention 98, the government refers to a recent amendment to the DIS-Act.
FH recognises the importance of this change.
However, the amendment to the DIS-Act
referred to in the government’s report
is in no way a
sufficient answer to the requests in the report from the Committee of Experts.
The scope of the amendments are limited to vessels operating in Danish territorial waters or
continental shelf whereas the amendment will have no effect to vessels already covered by the
DIS-Act.
The case regarding the Danish International Ships' Register (DIS) has been ongoing since
1988, at which time
FH’s predecessor,
LO, brought the legislative intervention to the attention
of the ILO, and in 1989, when the Committee of Experts decided that article 10, 2 and 3 of the
Act is not in accordance with ILO-Conventions 87, 98 and 111.
 L 72 - 2019-20 - Endeligt svar på spørgsmål 35: MFU spm. om at oversende korrespondance/afrapportering, som regeringen har foretaget til FN-organisationen ILO m.v., til skatteministeren
Convention 87
Regarding the report on Convention 87, FH
reiterates that the Danish government’s reference
to the fact that a seafarer may, in accordance with the DIS-general agreement, but as an
employee in accordance with article 10, 3 of the Act, choose to be a member of a Danish trade
union is insufficient and must therefore state the following:
In accordance with article 7 of the DIS-general agreement, only the trade union organisations
who are parties to the general agreement may assist seafarers cf. article 10, 3 of the DIS-Act
in matters that originate from Danish legislation. Such a membership of a Danish trade union
organisation is therefore immaterial to the collective agreement coverage, which is the
fundamental precondition to a membership.
The DIS-general agreement is therefore not of importance to
FH’s
criticism of article 10 of the
DIS-Act because it clearly appears from the DIS-General
agreement, article 1, that the parties’
participation to the agreement generally presupposes
that they “observe the right to conclude
DIS-collective agreements with foreign trade union organisations and observe such concluded
agreements in accordance with the DIS-Act.”
FH reiterates that, in the construction of article 10 of the DIS-Act, with its division of negotiating
powers to Danish and foreign seafarers, a labour law vacuum has been created which does
not provide any actual right to collective bargaining for any trade union organisations. A Danish
industrial dispute in the form of a strike against ships manned by seafarers without residence
in Denmark, in accordance with article 10,3, is illegal since such workers are not covered by a
collective agreement concluded in Denmark.
FH finds it urgent that the Danish government initiates actual dialogue on article 10 of the DIS-
Act with all parties from the worker-side
with a view to bringing it in accordance with the ILO’s
Conventions.
Side 2 af 2