How a strike notice affects you
Strikes and lockouts as well as disputes and negotiations are part of the Danish labour market. In Denmark, it is a tradition that every second or third year the labour market parties negotiate salary and working condition for the future period of collective agreement. Sometimes, it is easy, and sometimes it is difficult. This year, it is exceptionally difficult.
If you are employed at one of the schools that have been selected to go on strike, you must go on strike from the first day of the strike. When you strike, you will not get paid by the school. But you will get strike pay from the union. Get more information about strike pay and fees in “Get answers to your questions about the dispute in the public sector”. Only members of the Teachers' Union for Danish Independent Schools will go on strike. The colleagues who are not members of a union will go to work.
If the school at which you are employed has not been selected to go on strike, you must go to work as you normally would. However, it is the union that is part of the dispute and not just the ones who go on strike. Consequently, we urge you to support the colleagues who are on strike, to support the union's demands and to participate in possible events and demonstrations.
When we have issued a strike notice, the employers can choose to respond with a lockout notice. If the employers start a lockout, the members at the schools with the lockout should not go to work, and they will not get paid by the school. In case of a lockout, the union will offer the members a loan. Read more about loans and support in “Get answers to your questions about the dispute in the public sector”.
"At the Teachers' Union for Danish Independent Schools, we really want to avoid a strike, and we are working hard to reach an agreement,” says Chairman Uffe Rostrup:
“I don't think that anything good comes out of a strike. To find goods solutions to our problems – salaries and work hours – agreements are the answer.”