Initiative

Paternity Leave and Work-life balance

Summary of the initiative

Local Government Denmark (LGDK) is the interest group and member authority of all the Danish municipalities. The mission of LGDK is to safeguard common interests of the municipalities, assist the individual municipality with consultancy services and in addition ensure that the local authorities are provided with up-to-date and relevant information.

In Denmark, more women than men are employed in the public sector, this tendency being more explicit in the local and regional sector than in the central state sector. In general men are employed in technical jobs, primarily in the private sector, and women are employed in health and care jobs in the public sector. In addition more men are managers than women. This has resulted in different salary levels for men and women even though the different groups level of education are about the same. 

LGDK has undertaken various initiatives on gender equality:

Supporting work-life balance:  During the collective bargaining negotiations of 2008, LGDK signed an agreement for earmarked paternity leave - the 6-6-6 model, which entitles the mother and father to 6 weeks leave each on full pay, after the child’s 14th week.

 This pay entitlement is waived if the reserved leave is not taken. In addition, the father and mother are both entitled to a further 6 weeks leave on full pay.

In February 2013, LGDK conducted a survey to see if the changes made in the collective agreement of 2008 had changed the length of paternity leave that fathers had taken in the public sector. Looking at trends in men's paternity leave as a percentage of women’s and comparing the four sectors of the labour market, the effect of the scheme is obvious. There is an observed increase in men's total paternity leave per full-time staff member from 2008 to 2009 which extended earmarked paternity/maternity leave

Since this agreement was made, the existing right to payment for both mother (2 weeks) and father (4 weeks) has also increased. The level of paternity leave for the municipal staff men has risen from just about 11% to approximately 19% of women maternity leave. Thus, it achieved a greater gender balance in relation to paternity/ maternity absence after the introduction of the 6-6-6 model.

Addressing gender roles: since 2009 Local Government Denmark has taken initiatives to promote gender equality.

A conference on “Equal treatment of gender and diversity” in cooperation with the Institute of Human Rights and Copenhagen Municipality was organised, an agreement with SHK (negotiation and cooperation organisation representing the interest of over 100,000 people employed in the health and social sector) was signed and a joint project about equality – the gender-specific labour market was undertaken.

Promoting women in decision-making: the Local Government Denmark has created a plan for diversity which aims at getting more women enrolled in municipal leader talent programs. Local Government Denmark has recommended the municipalities to join the Ministry of Equality’s Charter that promotes “more Women in management” and also agreed with KTO (KTO is the counterpart of LGDK at the general collective bargaining that takes place every three years representing employees of municipalities and regions) on making a joint project that aims at investigating the municipalities’ experiences with the implementation of the Ministry of Equality’s Charter that promotes “more Women in management”.

A similar development has taken place at the regional level for the staff employed by regional government. Danish Regions have set up a plan for diversity, which aims at getting more women enrolled in municipal leader talent programmes. As a part of this plan Danish Regions and at least one region has joined the Ministry of Equality’s Charter that promotes “Women in management”.

Tackling the gender pay gap:  LGDK has promoted equal treatment and gender equality through a variety of initiatives. One of the major areas of focus is equal salary. In this framework, LGDK has signed a joint agreement with KTO and SHK about a more accessible and simplified statistical basis designed for the local (municipal) negotiations regarding salary. Particular focus has been placed on differences between both genders as a result the statistic is divided into gender- specific salaries. Furthermore, as of September 2012 the statistics encompass women’s salary as a percentage of men’s. It is also possible to get an overview of gender-specific salaries within various personnel groups, in order to make direct comparisons of the differences caused by gender.

In addition, LGDK has completed a project together with KTO analysing salary differences between men and women within the same personnel group.