Background information

In the wake of new initiatives from the authorities in the fight against COVID-19, Danish Crown decided to launch their own test program where employees are tested systematically. According to the press release, the goal was to keep COVID-19 out of the companies factories in order to secure employees in the best possible way against infection.

Content of measure

Danish Crown's test strategy has three parts. First, 10% of the employees at the production facilities must be tested every week to screen broadly for COVID-19 among the employees. The second part is testing of the employees who return from holiday or have been outside Denmark's borders on weekends. Last, a massive test effort is made if there is a suspicion of an outbreak.

The test program means that some of Danish Crown's employees, when they come to work on Monday morning, will be asked to state in which country and which region they have stayed over the weekend. Normally, an employer does not relate to the leisure time of its employees in this way, but as stated in the press release, the corona situation is quite serious, and therefore Danish Crown has previously been in dialogue with the Food Association NNF.

The tests used in the test program are "quick tests", where there are answers after 15 minutes. If an employee is found to be positive-tested for COVID-19, he or she is sent for testing in the public system, so that it is ensured that infection detection is made by the authorities.

Use of measure

There are over 6,000 employees in Denmark working for Danish Crown. It not evident how many that have been tested for COVID-19 as part of the test program.

Contents

• Health and safety

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Applies to all workers	Sector specific set of companies	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
Trade unions Company / Companies	Companies

Social partners

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

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Consulted	Unknown
Form	Direct consultation outside a formal body	Not applicable

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

• Only trade unions
• Main level of involvement: Company level

Involvement

As the test program means that the employee will be asked to account for their leisure time to their employer, Danish Crown has been in dialogue with the Food Association NNF.

The level and concrete type of involvement is unknown, just like possible impact of the dialogue with the Food Association NNF has had on the test program is unknown.

Views and reactions

Unknown.

Sectors and occupations

This case is not occupation-specific.

Sources

• 16 December 2020: Danish Crown webpage (www.danishcrown.com)