The deadline for reaching a mediation proposal is Tuesday next week. Five days from that day, industrial conflict will follow if the negotiations break down. The deadline has already been postponed for two weeks, and this is not likely to happen again.
The public sector unions have announced a strike in the case of a breakdown of negotiation and the employers have, on their part, announced a lockout.
The strike is intended to take place in select areas only whereas the lockout will affect most Danes as childcare, schools, hospitals, trains etc. will be affected when the employers lock out employees from their workplaces – sending them home without pay.
The last time this happened was five years ago in connection with collective bargaining on working time for school teachers.
Here, the lockout ended in a government intervention.
Slim hope of alternative outcomes
The hope is that history will not repeat itself this time. There are still a few possible outcomes.
There are negotiations for municipal employees today and state employees on Thursday. So, there is still a possibility that agreement will be reached before the deadline next Tuesday.
Another slim possibility is that the Conciliator postpones the process for another two weeks.
One for all and all for one
The unions have stood firmly by their ?Musketeer oath?, one-for-all and all-for-one, according to which public workers from all three groups will stand by the demand for a better working time agreement for school teachers, for example.
The three groups have the joint aim of getting pay rises equivalent to private-sector pay rises, a new agreement on working time for teachers and guaranteed paid lunch breaks.
The workers get the final say
Apart from the risk of a government intervention, there is another important factor ? the vote among the union members themselves.
If the parties to the agreement should agree on a mediation proposal, it will be put to the vote among the public sector workers. If they are not satisfied with the outcome, they can reject it – and then it?s back to square one.
The final say is with the workers.