Talks between the finance minister, Bjarne Corydon (Socialdemokraterne), and the teachers association Lærernes Centralorganisation collapsed today, meaning that some 17,000 state-employed teachers will be locked out following the Easter break. 

 

That puts the state-employed educators – primarily teachers at after-school institutions and technical schools – in the same boat as their council-employed counterparts, who saw their talks with local government association KL officially break down on Friday. 

 

Both negotiations ended when the parties were unable to come to terms on teachers' working hours. 

 

Anders Bondo Christensen, the head of the teachers' union Danmarks Lærerforening, said the teachers never stood a chance.

 

"The result was written beforehand," Christensen said according to public broadcaster DR. "It couldn't be changed by so much as a comma. I have never experienced negotiations like this. It is completely grotesque and absurd."

 

According to DR, the lockout will affect some 875,000 students nationwide, as the 566,660 public school students will be joined by over 20,000 adult foreigners in language classes, 24,000 children in after-school institutions, and tens of thousands of students in other state and council-run learning centres.