There should be room for small children at Danish workplaces. Such is the outlook from the HK and Danish Sites after an episode in folketingssalen, Mette Abildgaard and her infant were ejected by the president of the Danish parliament, Pia Kjærsgaard.
HP believes that there must be flexibility in the workplace. It establishes the vice-president Martin Rasmussen, who stands on the parents ‘ side of the case.
– It is grotesque, by the episode about Mette Abildgaard. We don’t get someone to be politicians, if you do not have the option. So it must still be such that one can also say that it is not in order to take a child with the and the day or in the and the situation, he says.
He gets the support from the Danish Sites, which has given the conservative politician backing on the social media. Næstforkvinde Helena Gleesborg Hansen has a hard time seeing the logic in banning.
– We think that it is incredibly rigid, disheartening and very retrogressive to banish Mette Abildgaard from folketingssalen, when she just had to come in to vote, she says.
Helena G. Hansen puts emphasis on the fact that Denmark, in accordance with international conventions, is committed to promoting women’s access to the labour market and to the political scene.
Big companies have no småbørnspolitik
It is not allowed to bring children in folketingssalen, if you ask the president of the Danish parliament, Pia Kjærsgaard. A number of major Danish companies, however, have no real policy in this area.
At Danske Bank in the absence of rules for children at work. Here is calling on managers and employees to find the ‘good’ local solutions, that respects both bank’s and employee’s needs.
– It was also the case during previous strikes in Denmark, where the employees took the children, where it was possible and necessary. The same applies if employees have a child, ill, etc. Depending on the work or the specific meeting, it may therefore be perfectly acceptable to take children with, which in other situations would be more inappropriate, writes global head of HR-department at Danske Bank Nicole Offendal.
Denmark’s biggest brewer, Carlsberg, has also not rules for the area. Press officer Kasper Elbjørn explains that most employees never take their child to work at the brewery in Fredericia, because it is too dangerous.
– Therefore, we see rarely, that people take their children with them at work. But conversely, I have seen that counterparts occasionally have a child with in the office, sitting at a desk with the parent and looking at an iPad. It happens very rarely. We experience it not as a problem or a challenge, writes Kasper Elbjørn.
At telegiganten TDC, there are rules about freedom in the context of children’s illness, but no ‘official babypolitik’. But the company lets its employees work from home, if necessary.
– In the daily, we strive for the greatest possible flexibility if an employee has a particular need, and it is a common practice that many have the opportunity to work from home. In exceptional cases, we have also offered our employees to take the children with on the job, but it is not, however, a general offer for the employees, writes the TDC.
the A. P. Moller – Maersk states that the company does not have ‘concrete’ or ‘written’ rules about kids on the job.
‘We understand that our employees in certain contexts may need to take their children to work in order to get the everyday life to hang together. The hills, of course, we up on and the experience that both parents and children manage the visits with consideration, so it will be a good experience for all,’ writes A. P. Møller – Mærsk.
