A new government proposal to make it easier for Danish companies to recruit foreign labor was presented to the Danish Parliament on Tuesday.
Economy Minister Troels Lund Poulsen is optimistic that the new law will give the country the boost it needs to overcome what is expected to be a difficult year – conversely at a time when companies are still struggling to recruit the employees who must to follow along. demand.
“It is a wish that has been widespread from large parts of Danish business in recent years,” he says.
“With what we are now proposing, we must make a permanent agreement, which also provides the framework for some better conditions for the benefit of the Danish companies, which in a large number of areas are under pressure in relation to attracting and obtaining the necessary labor.”
Provisional limit of 15,000 workers
Last June, the government obtained the necessary majority for an agreement to make it easier for companies to recruit foreign workers, but it did not become law due to the calling of the general election.
Much of what was agreed last year is included in the new bill – for example, the lowering of the mandatory annual salary that non-EU workers must use to obtain a Danish residence permit from DKK 445,000 to DKK 375,000 – along with a series of new additions.
The new bill also aims to cut a large part of the bureaucracy, so that companies can quickly recruit foreign labor in a more flexible way, while at the same time making the lowering of the wage requirement permanent. Previously, it was proposed that it should be lowered for only three years.
And should the scheme end up attracting over 15,000 workers, it will be reassessed by the parties that approved it, as it is not the intention of the bill to flood Denmark with foreign labour.
Should the bill be approved as expected, it will become binding from 1 April.
Minister rejects criticism of trade unions
Poulsen is certainly happy with the way the bill has progressed since last year.
“It is first and foremost to give the companies a guarantee that it will not be a stop and go policy, where you have some rules that apply for a short period of time, and then it is gone again. Now companies know what they can adapt to,” he explained to Ritzau.
“It makes it easier to create a recruitment process where you have a guarantee that the people you hire can also contribute to the benefit of the company where they may have been employed.”
Poulsen rejected criticism from Lizette Risgaard, the president of the FH trade union, who claimed that “politicians are opening a loading gate for foreign labor at relatively low wage levels”, firing back that the FH is “shooting sparrows with guns”.
“We know that if we fill the vacant positions in Danish companies, it also helps to make our business life more competitive. It also creates additional positions in Danish companies because you become more productive. So it is in many ways something that can help secure the future of our labor market, so that we keep the companies that are in Denmark,” he said.
Source: The Nordic Page