DENMARK Law and Practice Contributed by: Lise Lauridsen and Sandro Ratkovic, Bech-Bruun
essential employment conditions provided to each employee the wage agreed and how often it will be paid. White-collar employees typically receive a fixed salary, paid monthly, while blue-collar workers are hourly paid and receive their wages every two weeks. 1.5 Other Employment Terms Employees are entitled to a minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave. Collective agreements and indi - vidual employment contracts often provide for up to five additional days per year. On 25 January 2018, a new Danish Holiday Act (in Danish: “ Ferieloven ”) was adopted and introduced “concurrent holiday”. From 1 September 2020, employees can take paid holiday in the same year that the holiday accrues. Employees are no longer required to work for one calendar year before the beginning of the holiday year to be eligible to take paid statutory holiday. The paid holiday entitlement of 25 days remains unchanged. Holiday is accrued at a rate of 2.08 days of leave per month of service during the holiday year, which runs from 1 September to 31 August. Accrued holiday can be taken in the period from 1 September to 31 December the following year (a period of 16 months). The requirement to give three months’ notice for the main holiday and one month’s notice for any remaining holiday remains unchanged. However, it is no longer possible for an employer and employee to agree in advance in the employment contract to shorten the notice required for holiday to be taken. The Act also introduces changes to the payment of holiday supplement, whereby employees who receive salary during their holiday are also entitled to be paid a holiday supplement amounting to 1% of their sal - ary. The holiday supplement must be paid in two fixed instalments in May and August, or alternatively it can be paid at the same time as the holiday is taken. (Pre - viously, the holiday supplement was paid in May each year). Employees must generally take 15 days of their full leave entitlement consecutively in the summer period between 1 May and 30 September – this is known as the employee’s main holiday. The employer and
employee may agree to split the main holiday but at least ten days must be taken consecutively. The remaining entitlement should in principle be taken in two five-day blocks, but the employer and employee may agree that the entitlement can be taken as indi - vidual days.
2. Restrictive Covenants 2.1 Non-Competes Introduction
The Danish Act on Restrictive Covenants (in Danish: “ Ansættelsesklausulloven ”) applies to all employment clauses entered into on or after 1 January 2016. The Act applies to clauses agreed with employees, which means that directors, owners, consultants, and oth - ers in an independent position fall outside the scope of the Act. Some provisions of the Act, however, have a broader scope of application, including for executive officers and similar positions – eg, an employment clause is invalid if the termination of the employment relation - ship occurs without the employee having given rea - sonable cause for it, or as a result of the employer’s material breach of the employment relationship. Furthermore, a non-competition clause – or the non- compete element of a combined clause (cf below) – cannot be upheld if, in terms of time, geography, or other factors, it goes beyond what is necessary to protect the employer’s legitimate interests or if it unreasonably restricts the employee’s access to work or business opportunities. Non-Competition Clauses The following conditions must be fulfilled in order for a non-competition clause to be valid. • An employer may only validly enter into a non- competition clause if the employee holds a par - ticularly trusted position or if the employee enters into an agreement with the employer regarding the right of exploitation to an invention made by the employee.
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