In Hedehusene outside Copenhagen, the Danish company, Dansk Totalentreprise, have hired the lituanian company UAB Ekstatyba to plaster the facades of a newly constructed property with apartments. UAB Ekstatyba's lithuania employees had standard Lithuanian contracts of 40 hours per week for a salary of 1,000 euros per month.
The Danish trade union movement tries to avoid that the competition between the companies will force wages down by asking all companies working in Denmark, regardless of nationality, to sign collective agreements that ensure employees a minimum payment for their work. The Danish trade union, 3F BJMF, therefore wrote to the UAB Ekstatyba in 2019 and tried to get them to make a Danish collective agreement so that their employees could receive a Danish salary - approx. 150 kr./h. for masonry work (3,200 euros per month), as well as pension, payment on public holidays, holiday pay, salary during illness, etc.
UAB Ekstatyba did not respond to the letter from the union, and therefore UAB Ekstatyba came into conflict with the Danish unions. This means that the unions urge all its members from all companies to stop working on the construction site until the company which does not have a collective agreement, has signed an agreement or has been thrown out of the construction site.
Monday August 10 3F convened a demonstration and start of the conflict on the construction site in Hedehusene. The first speech had not even been given when a manager from the main contractor came out with a collective agreement, which had now been signed by UAB Ekstatyba's director.
The Lithuanian employees in UAB Ekstatyba are now entitled to Danish pay when performing work in Denmark. But the union´s work does not end there. The trade union has often experienced that companies, especially from abroad, have signed a collective agreement with the trade union, but fail to comply with it in reality. Therefore, the trade union needs the colleagues to find the courage to tell the trade union if the collective agreement is not complied with.
Contact BJMF if you want to know more about how you and the union jointly can ensure that you get a decent salary when you work in Denmark.