European Foundation
for the Improvement of
Living and Working Conditions

The tripartite EU agency providing knowledge to assist
in the development of better social, employment and
work-related policies

EU PolicyWatch

Database of national-level policy measures

Eurofound's EU PolicyWatch collates information on the responses of government and social partners to the COVID-19 crisis, the war in Ukraine, rising inflation, as well as gathering examples of company practices aimed at mitigating the social and economic impacts.

Factsheet for measure DK-2010-52/2481 Updated – measures in Denmark

Job rotation

Job rotation

Country Denmark , applies nationwide
Time period Open ended, started on 22 December 2010
Context COVID-19, Restructuring Support Instruments
Type Legislations or other statutory regulations
Category Promoting the economic, labour market and social recovery into a green future
– Active labour market policies (enhancing employability, training, subsidised job creation, etc.)
Author Carsten Jørgensen (FAOS, University of Copenhagen), Anders Randrup (Oxford Research)
Measure added 23 June 2022 (updated 23 November 2022)

Background information

Job rotation was introduced in the Act on active employment effort. Job rotation takes place when an employee in a company temporarily participates in further training or education and an unemployed person is hired as temporary worker. There must be an hour-to-hour relation between the number of training hours and the number of temporary work hours. The 'job-first' approach means that the job centres give priority to sending the unemployed to a full-time job and not in part-time employment.

Content of measure

Job rotation implies that an employee in a company can be replaced by an unemployed person while in continuous training. The primary interest of the companies will typically be to give a competence lift to their employees. The instrument is open to all companies and is not restricted to the public or private sector.

The temporary workers are chosen among unemployed people with a minimum of 26 weeks of unemployment. The wage follows the collective agreement in the company and the employment period should go from a minimum of 10 hours to a maximum of 26 weeks. Students, trainees, apprentices and adult apprentices, such as people in education, are not covered by this job rotation scheme. Job rotation is used in companies with unskilled or low-skilled workforce.

In 2020, the job rotation benefit amounted to DKK 190.44 (€25.59) per hour for both private and public companies. The administration of the job rotation scheme is currently the responsibility of STAR (The Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment).

Updates

The following updates to this measure have been made after it came into effect.

22 June 2022

In 2022, the job rotation benefit amounted to DKK 193.11 (€ 25.94) per hour for both private and public companies. Temporary job positions from 2021 and 2022 can now last up to 9 months, which has been implemented as an experimental scheme. The temporarily workers are chosen among unemployed people with a minimum of 3 months of unemployment.

Use of measure

In 2019, a state financed poll of DKK 20 million (€2.7 million) gave the possibility to municipalities to offer people involved in job rotation to take up a vocational education as part of their job rotation course. Since 2016, the number of people in job rotation declined slowly to a level of 1,313 persons/heads in 2019 using the job rotation scheme.

The 'job-first' approach means that the job centres give priority to sending the unemployed to a full-time job and not in part-time employment. Job rotation is mostly used in companies with unskilled or low-skilled workforce.

In 2010, 433 unemployed were in job rotation, and in 2011 the number had only increased to 471. However, at the beginning of 2014, the number of unemployed in job rotation strongly increased to around 5,000 full-time persons, or equivalent to 13,500 heads.

The number of people in job rotation has declined further during the COVID-19 crisis. In February 2020, 397 people were using the scheme. In March of the same year the number fell to 378, and in April to 338. In June 2020, 244 persons were in a job rotation course.

Target groups

Workers Businesses Citizens
Employees in standard employment
Applies to all businesses Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors Funding
National government
Trade unions
Employers' organisations
Local / regional government
Employers organisation
Local funds
National funds
Regional funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

Trade unions Employers' organisations
Role Unknown Unknown
Form Not applicable Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

  • Unknown
  • Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

Unknown

Views and reactions

Unknown

Sources

Citation

Eurofound (2022), Job rotation, measure DK-2010-52/2481 (measures in Denmark), EU PolicyWatch, Dublin, https://static.eurofound.europa.eu/covid19db/cases/DK-2010-52_2481.html

Share

Eurofound publications based on EU PolicyWatch

30 January 2023

 

Measures to lessen the impact of the inflation and energy crisis on citizens

Governments across the EU continue to implement policies to support citizens and businesses in the face of rising food and energy prices caused by the COVID-19 crisis and intensified by the war in Ukraine. This article summarises the policy responses as reported in Eurofound's EU PolicyWatch database from January to September 2022.

Article

12 September 2022

 

First responses to cushion the impact of inflation on citizens

Although the worldwide pandemic situation had already disrupted supply chains and triggered increases in energy and food prices in 2021, the situation deteriorated in 2022 with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Article

12 September 2022

 

Policies to support EU companies affected by the war in Ukraine

This article summarises the first policy responses that governments across the EU have started to implement to support companies affected by the rising prices, and those with commercial ties to Ukraine, Russia or Belarus.

Article

5 July 2022

 

Policies to support refugees from Ukraine

This article summarises the first policy responses of EU Member States, including those of the social partners and other civil society actors, enabling refugees to exercise their rights under the Temporary Protection Directive.

Article

Disclaimer: This information has not been subject to the full Eurofound evaluation, editorial and publication process.