It is important to have someone to be able to see yourself in – also as a non-Danish

Remember you can read news articles in Danish - click at 'Dansk' above to the right!

"Nordea is an international company and more and more English-speaking colleagues are being hired. Of course, they must be represented on an equal footing and have the same opportunities and the same support as Danish-speaking colleagues," says Natascha Bødker Feodor Nielsen, board member of Finansforbundet in Nordea.

Even though union representatives today speak English, there may be cultural differences that are easier to understand when you are not born and raised in Denmark.

6 percent are non-Danish speakers

More than six per cent of Finansforbundet in Nordea's working members have specified English as their preferred language in Finansforbundet's membership system.

"It is important that the union representatives reflect the employees and members. I believe that with enlargement, our international colleagues will be able to be represented by people who will perhaps be able to understand their situation even better. It can be unwritten rules in a Danish workplace, and what different cultures can mean for cooperation or consequences for the residence permit if you lose your job. And then the experience of what a trade union is also differs from country to country," says Natascha.

At the same time, it is also an opportunity for international colleagues to gain professional and personal development through the training as a union representative – and to influence the network of union representatives.

Education in English

Until now, the opportunity for non-Danish-speaking colleagues to become union representatives has been limited by the fact that the training to become a union representative is only in Danish. Finansforbundet has just decided that the programme will also be offered in English. 

"It is not definitively clear when the English-language education will begin. I will therefore support union representatives with a foreign background extra much in the start-up phase," says Natascha Bødker Feodor Nielsen. 

If you want to hear more about the possibilities, please reach out to Natascha.