Your rights as a new employee
Trading in your student ID for a keycard to a company gives you many new rights. And it’s important that you know about these new rights, so you don’t cheat yourself with respect to remuneration and working conditions. This applies both before and after signing a contract.
Employment contracts can be hard to decipher
When you are a student, there are some rights and privileges that are not signed by contract, like having a long summer break, and being able to skip a lecture if you’re feeling a bit under the weather. Therefore, it can be hard to know what your rights and obligations are as a new employee, once you have a freshly signed contract in your hands. There’s a big difference between your rights as a student and your rights as an employee. IDA’s legal advisers are often asked to review the contracts of new graduates.
“It’s a big new world for graduates, and I understand that they need some help navigating it. Employment contracts can be hard to decipher, and it’s hard to know how to get a clarification,” says Nicole Sander Jensen, a legal adviser at IDA.
She stresses that new employees generally have some minimum rights, and that there are collective agreements in the public sector that determine how much vacation or maternity/paternity leave you are entitled to.
Video: Understand your employment contract
Public versus private sector employee
If you are employed by a municipality, region or the government, your employment conditions will be covered by a collective agreement between your employer and a trade union. You will therefore not need to negotiate any rights prior to signing your contract. This is usually not the case in the private sector, even though some areas are covered by collective agreements. At most private workplaces, you will enter into a private contract with your employer. In this case, it’s a good idea to review the staff handbook, which describes some of the benefits and conditions of employment such as maternity/paternity leave and holidays. If you are hired, you can also talk to a trade union representative.
“It’s a good idea to reach out to your trade union representative to find out the terms and conditions for your specific workplace. Do any special conditions apply? The trade union representative can also tell you if the company has a minimum salary,” says Nicole Sander Jensen.
Many industries offer a fixed salary. This type of salary is not tied to the typical 37-hour working week but instead reflects the work that a job function requires. Therefore, there is no pay supplement for overtime work or work outside of normal working hours. This should of course be reflected in the basic salary, which is usually higher than other places.
Video: Employment in the public sector
Video: Employment in a private company
Typical conditions of a job in the public sector:
- Entitled to the 6th holiday week
- Salary during maternity/paternity leave
- Paid lunch break
- High pension contributions
- Fixed basic salary based on seniority
- Possibility of negotiating functional supplements
- Salary during sick leave
Typical conditions of employment in a private company:
- Often employed under an individual contract negotiated between you and your employer
- You are responsible for negotiating your salary and any potential working condition improvements
- Many companies have a staff handbook as a supplement to the contract. This contains agreements about extra holiday, maternity/paternity leave and continuing training.
- There may be a collective agreement in the company, but you will have to approve the terms and conditions.
- Regulated by legislation, which means certain minimum rights are protected such as holidays, maternity/paternity leave, equality and the right to an employment contract.
- You can always negotiate better terms than those contained in legislation, such as the child’s first day of sickness, overtime rules and extra days off.
- Employer-paid pension contributions are not compulsory in Denmark and are therefore not a matter of course in the private sector.
What if I get sick?
You have a runny nose and a sore throat. Do you call out sick or do you stock up on nasal spray and throat lozenges, bite the bullet and head into work? If you get sick, you have rights and obligations to your employer, but it is important to note that if you are sick, then you’re sick. The Corona pandemic taught us how quickly a virus can spread, and many employers would prefer that you stay home when you’re sick rather than showing up at work and infecting the entire team with your cold. So, call in sick as soon as you can, and not later than the start of your working hours.
“It’s your responsibility to document that you have notified your work about your illness, so it’s a good idea to do so in writing,” says Rasmus Ahlgren, a team leader at Law and Working Conditions IDA.
Video: Know your rights if you fall ill
On the other hand, you are not obligated to tell your employer anything about your illness. Even in cases of long-term illness such as stress or any other serious conditions. If you are employed under the Danish Salaried Employees Act, then you are generally entitled to salary during sickness, regardless of how long you are ill. However, your employer may ask you to provide a sick note from your doctor as documentation of your illness.
How much vacation do I have?
According to the Holiday Act, you are entitled to five weeks’ holiday per year accrued monthly. This is why you’ll encounter the strange number of 2.08 on your monthly payslips. This means you’ve earned 2.08 days of holiday with pay that month. In total, this will amount to 25 days of paid holiday per year.
This change was introduced by the new Holiday Act in 2017, which makes it possible to take vacation days already a month after starting a job. This is in contrast to the previous Act, under which you had to have been employed for a longer period before you could take paid holiday. You earn holidays from 1 September to 31 August, but you can use the days of paid holiday until 31 December of the following year.
Being able to spread a year’s worth of holiday across 16 months instead of 12 months provides greater flexibility for you and your employer. It’s up to you how you allocate your holiday, but the Act entitles you to three consecutive weeks of summer holiday between 1 May and 30 September.
Video: Know your rights when going on holiday
HELP, I´ve been fired!
Getting fired is never a good experience. Whether it’s related to cutbacks, poor collaboration or long-term illness, Denmark has a very flexible job market in which a company can hire or fire as they see fit. On the other hand, there are some terms and conditions that protect you if you are dismissed from your job.
Video: Know your rights if you get fired
The Danish Salaried Employees Act requires employers and employees to give notice, the length of which depends on how long you have been employed. As a new employee, you should be aware that there might be a probationary period during which the employer can dismiss you with short notice. However, if you quit, the notice period is often to the end of the month plus one month.
What are my rights in terms of maternity/paternity leave?
It’s important for both you and your workplace to draw up a plan for your maternity/paternity leave.
Video: Know your rights if you or your partner becomes pregnant
It is important both for you and your place of work that you make a solid plan for your leave, when baby is due.
Plan your time ahead of, during and after the leave with IDAs leave calculator, that shows you how many weeks you and a potential partner can take with and without salary, who can take leave at what time and how to best plan your maternity/paternity leave. Be aware that new laws were introduced in August 2022.
Try out IDAs maternity/paternity calculator.
