Morning Briefing – Wednesday, August 21

The Copenhagen Post’s daily digest of what the Danish press is reporting

March, in the name of love 
Ten thousand people got an early start on Copenhagen Pride festivities on Tuesday with a demonstration against Russia’s recently passed anti-gay law. Protestors taking part in the ‘To Russia with Love’ demonstration gathered in front of Christiansborg, the house of parliament, and then proceeded to march to the Russian Embassy, where they submitted signatures of people opposing the law. The demonstration’s organisers had hoped 2,000 people would participate, but media reports put the turnout at upwards of 10,000 demonstrators. 

Criticism of property evaluations
Tax officials can expect harsh words from Rigsrevision, the national auditor’s office, when it hands in a report that criticises the way property tax evaluations are carried out. According to the report, the inability of the Tax Ministry, and Skat, the tax agency, to properly conduct evaluations leaves homeowners uncertain of whether their property has been correctly assessed. Skat is singled out for “not paying sufficient attention to certain aspects of evaluations, or in some cases skipping parts of assessments entirely”. Concerns about value assessments have been raised previously and the new report found that the estimates were wrong in three out of four assessments. The report found the problems with tax assessments dated back to 2003, a period spanning the terms of six tax ministers. – Børsen

Kids have a right to privacy, too
Parents who post pictures of their children on social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter violate their kids' privacy, say two specialists in online identity. The experts said that by uploading pictures of their children, parents begin laying the foundation of their online profile, and that only the children themselves should decide what gets posted when they are capable of making such a decision. “You can’t predict [how people will react to the pictures],” said Pernille Tranberg, of the University of Southern Denmark. “Parents are unfairly violating their children’s right to privacy.” – DR Nyheder

Greenland’s golden dreams short of cash
A global downturn on the price of raw materials threatens to cut off funding for the race to develop Greenland’s mining industry. The self-governing territory is hoping that reports of vast mineral deposits can fund economic independence from Copenhagen but as mineral prices fall, investors become less likely to invest in development of new mines. That could stifle a number of on-going projects and derail several before they even get underway. “There are a lot of people who want investment in their projects, but there aren’t a lot of investors willing to put money into them,” said Lars Lund Sørensen, a geologist with GEUS, the geological survey for Denmark and Greenland. – Politiken Økonomi

Don’t dump on me
Foreign lorry drivers working illegally in Denmark will face stiffer penalties under new initiatives aimed at preventing Danish wages from being undermined that are due to be unveiled by PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt (Socialdemokratere) today. The effort to combat so-called 'social dumping' will also include more frequent control visits to cleaning firms and restaurants. The new initiatives are expected to be discussed in the weeks to come, but they have the support of the far-left Enhedslisten and are likely to pass. – Jyllands-Posten





  • How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    Being part of a trade union is a long-established norm for Danes. But many internationals do not join unions – instead enduring workers’ rights violations. Find out how joining a union could benefit you, and how to go about it.

  • Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals are overrepresented in the lowest-paid fields of agriculture, transport, cleaning, hotels and restaurants, and construction – industries that classically lack collective agreements. A new analysis from the Workers’ Union’s Business Council suggests that internationals rarely join trade unions – but if they did, it would generate better industry standards.

  • Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    The numbers are especially striking amongst the 3,477 business and economics students polled, of whom 31 percent elected Novo Nordisk as their favorite, compared with 20 percent last year.