New agreement-based hiring route for certified employers

Certified Danish employers gain a new collective-agreement-based pay route for hiring third-country nationalsRetsinformation: a residence and work permit under udlændingeloven section 9 a(2) no. 15Retsinformation where the job pays at least DKK 322,000 a yearRetsinformation, is covered by a designated collective agreementRetsinformation, and the worker holds citizenship of a listed third countryRetsinformation. At application time the average seasonally adjusted gross unemployment of the preceding three months must not exceed the minister-set levelRetsinformation.

Before hiring under the route, the employer must declare on honour and conscience that the post is covered by an eligible agreement, that it is full-time under that agreement, and that the business secures access to ongoing checks of agreement compliance.

Certification to hire under the route requires at least ten full-time employees in Denmark, payment of the fee, a prior guidance meeting at Styrelsen for International Rekruttering og Integration (SIRI), a clean comprehensive service certificate (serviceattest) from Erhvervsstyrelsen no more than three months old, and two years of operation with a filed annual report or accounts. The business must not be under a lawful industrial dispute, must have no uncomplied-with immediate orders from Arbejdstilsynet, must not have been fined by the Labour Court or industrial arbitration for underpaying foreign labour in the prior two years, and must stay within the specified penalty record under sections 59(5) and 60(1). The social partners may jointly recommend that a fine for underpayment should not block certification.

Ongoing control accessRetsinformation is a condition of the permitRetsinformation. Where the relevant agreement parties have no control agreement, the business must still secure ongoing control access at a statutory minimum: telling the shop steward about hires under the route, access for the steward to meet the recruited employees, and access to relevant information including pay-setting. Where no steward is elected, the agreement-bearing union must be told of hires, meet the recruited employees twice a year and the employer twice a year, and see the relevant information. Disputes over control access go through the labour-law system (fagretlig behandling).

The wage-earner organisation gets a voice before permits issue: SIRI may pass the employer's declarations to the relevant union without consent, and the union has ten working days to object that the agreement information is false. If a provisional work permit has been issued and the objection is not finally resolved within six weeks, the provisional permit is withdrawn. A permit under the route lapses on a final labour-law finding of agreement breach or denied control access, or on a joint recommendation to that effect — and SIRI decisions refusing or withdrawing certification on those grounds, or after an underpayment fine, cannot be appealed to Udlændingenævnet.

A permit can still be extended in the same employment even if unemployment has since risen above the threshold or the worker's country has left the published listRetsinformation. The country list itself covers top-ten investment partnersRetsinformation, EU candidate countriesRetsinformation and mobility-agreement statesRetsinformation, excluding foreign-policy exceptions and visa-group 4 and 5 nationalsRetsinformation. First certification runs three yearsRetsinformation, renewals four years at a timeRetsinformation.

The act was adopted by Folketinget on 3 September 2026Retsinformation and takes effect on 1 January 2027Retsinformation.

Basis: the adopted act on the new collective-agreement-based pay scheme for certified businesses, amending udlændingeloven section 9 a and related provisionsRetsinformation.