The Danish Ministry of Employment has been held liable for a protracted legislative process following the ECJ’s ruling in the Ole Andersen case (C-499/08), which concluded that the Salaried Employees Act was not compliant with Directive 2000/78/EC concerning equal treatment in employment and occupation (prohibition of discrimination on grounds of age). |
Search result: 18 articles
Case Reports |
2022/3 Liability for late implementation of EU law following ruling from the ECJ (DK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 1 2022 |
Keywords | Age Discrimination, Miscellaneous |
Authors | Christian K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Case Reports |
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Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 4 2021 |
Keywords | Disability Discrimination |
Authors | Christian K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
In four recent cases, the Danish Eastern High Court addressed the question of whether it was indirect disability discrimination to dismiss four reduced hours employees (fleksjobbere) as part of a cost-saving process because they lacked essential core skills. The High Court ruled in favour of the employer, stating that the employer was not required to maintain the employees’ employment as it would be incompatible with the new demands for qualifications caused by the cutbacks. Consequently, the dismissals did not constitute indirect disability discrimination. |
Case Reports |
2021/18 Fixed-term singers not comparable to permanent singers at the Royal Danish Theatre (DK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 2 2021 |
Keywords | Fixed-Term Work, Other Forms of Discrimination |
Authors | Christian K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
In a recent case, the Danish Supreme Court addressed the question of what constitutes a comparable permanent employee in relation to discrimination against fixed-term employees. The Supreme Court ruled that even though the two groups of fixed-term and permanent singers at the Royal Opera Chorus of the Royal Danish Theatre performed almost the same tasks, their positions were not comparable as the singers’ qualifications and skills were different and, for this reason, the difference in terms and conditions was not discriminatory. |
Case Reports |
2021/6 Conclusion of the ECJ case on whether obesity may constitute a disability (DK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 1 2021 |
Keywords | Disability Discrimination |
Authors | Christian K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
In 2014, the ECJ was presented with a preliminary reference from the District Court in Kolding on the matter of whether EU law provides protection against discrimination on grounds of obesity with regard to employment and occupation. Following the ECJ’s ruling, first the District Court and later the High Court found that an employee’s obesity as such did not constitute a disability within the meaning of Directive 2000/78/EC establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation since his obesity had not constituted a limitation or inconvenience in the performance of his job. |
Case Reports |
2020/47 The Danish Supreme Court decides on reversed burden of proof (DK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 4 2020 |
Keywords | Gender Discrimination |
Authors | Christian K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The Danish Supreme Court recently held that an employer had discharged the reversed burden of proof in a case concerning a physiotherapist who was dismissed shortly after her return from maternity leave. |
Case Reports |
2020/14 Sickness absence related to employee’s disability (DK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 2 2020 |
Keywords | Disability Discrimination, Unfair Dismissal |
Authors | Christian K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Recently, the Danish Eastern High Court found that an employee’s sickness absence was a result of the employer’s failure to comply with its obligation to offer reasonable accommodation for the employee’s disability. For that reason the employee, who was dismissed in pursuance of the Danish ‘120-day rule’, was entitled to compensation for unfair dismissal under the Danish Anti-Discrimination Act. |
Case Reports |
2020/32 Employee barred from claiming compensation under the Anti-Discrimination Act due to agreement in full and final settlement (DK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 3 2020 |
Keywords | Disability Discrimination, Discrimination General |
Authors | Christian K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The Danish Western High Court recently found that an employee who had entered into a severance agreement – and who was represented by her professional organisation during this process – was barred from claiming compensation under the Danish Anti-Discrimination Act, implementing Directive 2000/78. |
Case Reports |
2020/6 Supreme Court judgment on the concept of comparable permanent employees (DK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 1 2020 |
Keywords | Fixed-term work, Other forms of discrimination |
Authors | Christian K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
In a recent case on fixed-term employment, the Danish Supreme Court addressed the question of what constitutes a comparable permanent employee. The Supreme Court ruled that four employees, who worked in a government agency, were not comparable with the agency’s permanent employees and for this reason they had not been discriminated against on the grounds of their fixed-term contracts. |
Case Reports |
2019/43 Dismissal after childbirth-related leave (DK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 4 2019 |
Keywords | Gender discrimination |
Authors | Christian K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The Danish Western High Court has ruled that the dismissal of an employee shortly after returning from childbirth-related leave did not constitute discrimination within the meaning of the Danish Act on Equal Treatment of Men and Women. |
Case Reports |
2019/25 Dismissal of an employee with a reduced-hours job who reached the statutory retirement age did not constitute unlawful discrimination (DK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 3 2019 |
Keywords | Age discrimination |
Authors | Christian K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
In a recent judgment, the Danish Supreme Court has established that it does not constitute unlawful discrimination under the Anti-Discrimination Act when a disabled employee is dismissed. The employee had a publicly funded reduced-hours job, but reached the statutory retirement age for which reason the public funding lapsed, and that was the reason for the dismissal. |
Case Reports |
2019/13 A long-term functional impairment? (DK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 2 2019 |
Keywords | Disability Discrimination |
Authors | Christian K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
An employee’s functional impairment, which at the time of dismissal had had a duration of 11 months and with an uncertain prognosis, was not deemed a long-term one. For that reason, the Danish Western High Court found that the employee was not disabled within the meaning of the Anti-Discrimination Act or Directive 2000/78 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation. |
Case Reports |
2019/7 Municipalities’ repatriation of home care services did not constitute a transfer of undertaking (DK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 1 2019 |
Keywords | Transfer of undertakings, Transfer |
Authors | Christiaan K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The Danish Western High Court recently ruled that the Danish Act on Employees’ Rights on Transfers of Undertakings did not apply to two municipalities’ repatriation of home care services after a private-sector service provider went bankrupt. |
Case Reports |
EELC 2018/39 Supreme Court decision on part-time work and fixed-term employment (DK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 4 2018 |
Keywords | Part-time work, Fixed-term work |
Authors | Christian K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The Danish Supreme Court has held there was no discrimination against four part-time teachers at a university in that they did not receive pension contributions. Their positions could not be compared to those of full-time teachers, who were entitled to pension contributions. However, it did constitute a violation of the Danish rules on fixed-term work that the teachers had, for a number of years, been employed on several fixed-term contracts, as they had, in effect, been continuously employed in the same position. Consequently, the teachers were awarded compensation. |
Case Reports |
2018/22 What is a collective agreement? Part two (DK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 3 2018 |
Keywords | Collective agreements |
Authors | Christian K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The Danish Supreme Court has upheld the decision from the Danish Eastern High Court (reported in EELC 2017/26) on the implementation of the Working Time Directive to the effect that an ‘intervention act’ can be deemed to be a collective agreement within the meaning of Article 18 of the Working Time Directive. |
Case Reports |
2018/10 Liability for not reacting in time to ECJ decision regarding holiday pay (DK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 1 2018 |
Keywords | Miscellaneous |
Authors | Christian K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The Danish Supreme Court has ruled that the Danish authorities may have incurred liability by failing to act sufficiently quickly to amend the Danish Holiday Act to align it with EU law. |
Case Reports |
2017/53 Transfer of bus services was a transfer of undertaking (DK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 4 2017 |
Keywords | Transfer of undertakings |
Authors | Christian K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
A privately operated public bus service was transferred back to the municipality. This constituted the transfer of an undertaking even though the municipality did not buy the buses from the bus operator. |
Case Reports |
2017/26 What is a collective agreement? (DK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 3 2017 |
Keywords | Collective labour law, Collective agreements |
Authors | Christian K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
On 2 June 2017, the Danish Eastern High Court decided that a statutory intervention by government was sufficient to enable derogation from the Working Time Directive (2003/88). The Directive can be derogated from by a collective agreement and although the statutory intervention was not a collective agreement, the High Court found that it was not inconsistent with that requirement. |
Case Reports |
2017/14 Dansk Industri revisited: the Danish Supreme Court overrides the EU Court of Justice (DE) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 2 2017 |
Keywords | Age discrimination |
Authors | Christian K. Clasen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
On 6 December 2016, the Danish Supreme Court delivered its long-awaited judgment on the case of Ajos, addressing the issue of whether a private employer was entitled to refuse to make a redundancy payment in reliance on the former section 2a(3) of the Danish Salaried Employees Act or whether the general principle against discrimination on grounds of age needed to take precedence. It concluded that the employer was entitled to refuse to pay. |