The Danish government has proposed an initiative to make it easier and less bureaucratic for Danish companies to attract and hire foreign workers.

The initiative, presented yesterday by the Danish Ministry of Employment, presents a 21-point program aimed at smoothing the way for companies that want to attract foreign skilled workers.

According to the Ministry, employment in Denmark is at a record high and unemployment continues to decline. However, at the same time, more companies are still reporting a lack of labour. The Ministry pointed to difficulty in recruiting skilled labour from abroad due to paperwork. It added that if companies are not able to get the workforce they need then it can cost jobs.

“Foreign labour also brings benefits to all Danes in terms of higher growth and more dollars in public funds,” The Ministry said. “Therefore, the government will now make it easier for Danish companies to attract and hire qualified foreign labour. This must go hand in hand with continued efforts for organised relationships in the Danish labour market.”

Immigration and Integration Minister Inger Støjberg, who co-presented the initiative, commented, "We are conducting a strict and consistent immigration policy to control the influx. At the same time, we must give Danish companies the best prerequisites for attracting the necessary and qualified labour.”

The minimum salary to qualify for the program is DKK 300,000 (€40,230). 

“The initiative we present significantly increases the ability of companies to hire skilled and qualified employees,” Støjberg said.

Støjberg also added that “access to skilled labour goes hand in hand with a strict immigration policy.”

Employment Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, who also co-presented the initiative, commented, "At a time of pressure on the labour market, we must put all sails in order to ensure skilled labour for companies across the country. Otherwise, we end up in a situation that we definitely cannot end in where companies say no to orders and we lose Danish jobs.”

“The government is therefore launching a project that will make it easier for companies to get qualified labour from abroad,” Poulsen said.

“At the same time, we will continue efforts for orderly relationships,” Poulsen said. “We do not open for foreign labour without ensuring that they will compete on equal terms with Danish labour. Foreign labour is by no means the solution to all recruitment challenges. We will therefore continue efforts to upskill.”

The initiative has been met with opposition with Mette Frederiksen, leader of the opposition party, the Social Democrats, who told The Local.dk that Denmark has no need for such workers and that the initiative was ‘short-termist’.

“We have many young people who are currently not doing anything,” Frederiksen said. “It is better to invest in their education.”

“We also have unskilled workers who should be given the chance to gain skills and women who are working part-time,” Frederiksen said.

Frederiksen argued that Danish companies who lack skilled workers could look to the EU labour market, which she considers sufficient to make up any shortfall in skilled labour already present in Denmark.

The Confederation of Danish Industry rejected Frederiksen’s claims and supported the government initiative.

“This is not a question of one way or the other, we need to do both. We need to be better at educating the talent we have within Denmark, we need to get better at bringing in the employees we can from the rest of Europe, and we also need to look at the broader perspective and attract the talent that (companies) need from outside Europe," Linda Wendelboe, head of global talent with the Confederation of Danish Industry, said.

Data from Eurostat showed that the unemployment rate in Denmark stood at 4.9% in August 2018.