New pay and working hours

Are you switching to fixed salary?

From 1 July 2021, you could be one of the employees that will switch over to a fixed salary. The conditions for switching to a fixed salary are that you have a monthly salary of DKK 53,000 or more and that it is possible for you to plan your work independently.

If you have been hired after 1 April 2020 and meet the terms for being on fixed salary, you are probably already employed under the new fixed salary conditions.

If you have currently agreed that payment for overtime is included in your pay, then the change you will experience is that, from 1 July, you will have the right to plan your work independently.

Planning your work independently
When you switch to fixed salary, this means that payment of overtime and inconvenience supplement are included in your pay. On the other hand, you will have the right to plan your own work. This gives you a broad flexibility, so that you can organise your working life so that it best fits with your life situation both in terms of working hours and working station. Studies have shown that this type of self-management and influence over your own work results in a boost in job satisfaction.

Are you in doubt whether you meet the terms to be on fixed salary? Contact your union representative or call Forhandling (Negotiations) at Finansforbundet (Financial Services Union Denmark) 3296 4600

Are you entitled to salary compensation?

Fixed salary and the new pay system are not meant to result in savings. Therefore, Finansforbundet (Financial Services Union Denmark) has agreed with the employers that no employees should go down in pay when they switch to fixed salary. Therefore, they will be compensated with a supplement for the payment for overtime, which will henceforth be included in their salary. The supplement is calculated on the basis of your overtime for the last two years, so as always, you should remember to register your working hours. If you previously had overtime, you also need to be compensated for the overtime supplement, which you will no longer be eligible for going forward. This too will be calculated on the basis of your overtime supplement going back two years. However, since going forward, you will have six weeks of holiday instead of five weeks, you should remember to deduct the extra holiday when calculating your compensation.

Example of a calculation
You have had 100 hours of overtime during the last two years. 60 hours were at a supplement of 50 percent, and 40 hours were at a supplement of 100 percent. Therefore, you received a supplement corresponding to 30 hours + 40 hours, which comes to 70 hours total or 35 hours per year. However, since you will henceforth receive an extra week of holiday, which corresponds to 37 hours of full-time employment, you do not lose anything and hence do not require compensation. If, on the other hand, you had overtime work corresponding to 80 hours of supplement during the two years, you need to receive compensation for a total of six hours of pay.

Note, this is just an example; there may be local agreements that deviate from this.

As an IT worker, you should count on a work week of 36 hours.

Even though the seniority system is being removed, you do not lose the pay increase that you expected to receive in the seniority system. This means that if, by 1 July 2021, you are not on the highest level in the old system, then the expected pay increase will be paid as a supplement. This could either take place here and now or as a yearly regulation.

If you are in doubt whether you have the right to compensation, contact your union representative.