Danish Supreme Court clarifies temporary worker rights in split ruling

The Danish Supreme Court has delivered a split decision on the rights of temporary workers, offering a glimmer of hope for those with long-term contracts but emphasizing the case-by-case nature of such claims. In a case involving three temporary workers who had been employed for two to four years through Flair (formerly Adecco) at Siemens and Boeing, the court considered whether their repeated contract extensions entitled them to the same rights as permanent staff.

The trade union HK argued that the workers should receive benefits like notice period pay and severance, mirroring those of permanent employees. The Supreme Court, however, upheld the lower courts' rulings, siding with the union in one instance while rejecting the claim in another.

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If you as a temporary worker are extended several times and end up working in the same place for years, you can achieve the same rights as a permanent employee.

The key distinction lay in the court's assessment of the employment's nature. In the successful case, the court found it proven that the employment was temporary within a department slated for outsourcing. Conversely, in the rejected case, the employer's claim of temporary employment due to outsourcing was not substantiated to the court's satisfaction.

This ruling underscores the critical importance of demonstrating the specific context and intent behind temporary contracts. While the principle that prolonged temporary work can equate to permanent status holds, its application hinges on concrete evidence and the court's interpretation of whether the employment was genuinely temporary or a prolonged arrangement masking permanent status.

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This depends heavily on the individual case and whether it can be argued that the temporary employee is only temporarily employed.