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According to the Constitution section 78 citizens shall, without previous permission, be free to form associations for any lawful purpose. Associations employing violence, or aiming at the attainment of their object by violence, by instigation to violence, or by similar punishable influence on persons holding other views, shall be dissolved by court judgement.

Labour market and unions

A special regulation is found in the Consolidated Act No 424 of 8 May 2006 on freedom of association on the labour market (Bekendtgørelse af Lov om foreningsfrihed på arbejdsmarkedet).

The act was amended by Act No 359 of 26 April 2006. According to the preparatory works the amendment was a consequence of the judgement of 11 January 2006 by the European Court of Human Rights on closed-shop agreements (CASES OF SØRENSEN v. DENMARK and RASMUSSEN v. DENMARK (Applications nos. 52562/99 and 52620/99) which can be found below under Case Law.

According to the act, an employer may not fail to employ an applicant for a vacant position or dismiss an employee because the applicant or employee is a member of an association or a specific association. Also, an employer may not fail to employ an applicant for a vacant position or dismiss an employee because the applicant or employee is not a member of an association or a specific association.

Furthermore, regulations in collective agreements that oblige an employer to only or predominantly employ salaried workers who are member of an association or a specific association are null and void. This equally applies to salaried workers that are not member of an association or a specific association.

In special cases, exceptions ban be made if the explicit aim of the activity of the employer is to promote a certain political, ideological, religious or cultural standpoint and the association conditions of the employee must be regarded of importance to the activity.

The act is not available in English, but is available in Danish.

Posted: March 2008

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