The Labour Court has numerous times established the critical importance of the right to initiate collective industrial action as a means to agreement between the different parties of the labour market. The importance of this right is the result of the Danish Model in which certain working conditions can only be ensured through a collective agreement entered into by the relevant parties. Because of this, collective industrial action is the only means a party can use to put pressure on an opposing party during the negotiations of such an agreement, and it is therefore of the outmost importance.
Parties of the labour market have a variety of weapons to choose from in order to initiate collective industrial action. Among them are weapons such as strike, blockade and sympathy actions. Some of these weapons are more renowned than others, such as the strike. It is the parties’ prerogative to choose which weapons they want to use against the opposing party in order to put pressure on them. The weapons each have their own function, however they are all used with the intention to put pressure on the opposing party.
This thesis seeks to investigate the legality and effect of collective industrial action in relation to different types of industry. The thesis will begin by explaining the meaning of certain concepts concerning labour law, including the definition of a collective agreement and the peace period. After this, the thesis will analyse selected case law. The case law features a number of different types of activities related to different types of industry and is therefore very relevant when analyzing which weapons are legal and have the biggest effect under the different circumstances.
The selected case law includes 3 cases decided by the Danish labour court and 2 cases decided by the European Court of Justice. The cases include types of industry such as restaurants, a brewery, a shipping company, a construction firm and an airline. Some of these also exert cross-border activity, leading the European Unions rights of free movement to become relevant in certain situations.
The conclusion of this thesis compares the analyses of the case law and sum up the main points of these in order to answer the thesis’ research question about the legality and effect of industrial action in relation to different types of industry. The conclusion sums up that the answer to this thesis research question is that the legality of the methods of collective industrial action in large depends on the legality of the main conflict itself as well as the legality of the individual methods themselves. Furthermore, it is concluded that the methods of collective industrial action have different effect on different types of industry depending on the circumstances of the situation.