- Date:
- 20 Mar 2009
Employees must provide robust evidence if they want to convince the courts that they were dismissed for a union-related reason.
Employees must provide robust evidence if they want to convince the courts that their dismissal was for a union-related reason.
Employees will have to prove on a balance of probabilities that the reason for dismissal was their trade union membership or non-membership. Otherwise, there will be no compensation under the Danish Freedom of Association Act. That was made clear by the Danish Eastern High Court in a recent case.
The case concerned two trade union employees. The employees were given notice because they refused to accept a minor change to their terms of employment. In their view, however, they were dismissed because they were members of another trade union and thus not members of their employer. The two employees therefore brought a claim for compensation under the Danish Freedom of Association Act.
It is a long-held principle of Danish law that employees may not be dismissed for their membership or non-membership of a particular trade union. But the judges were not convinced that the employees had been given notice because they refused to become a member of their employer trade union. Nor were the judges convinced that they had been given notice because of their membership of another trade union. As the employees failed to convince the Court that they had been dismissed in breach of the Danish Freedom of Association Act, the Court found for their former employer.
Norrbom Vinding notes
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that the case shows that when an employee claims protection under, for instance, the Danish Freedom of Association Act, it is for the employee to prove that a dismissal is for a union-related reason. Otherwise, the employee will not be entitled to compensation.
