The Policy to Promote Social Responsibility

This paper has been prepared for the European Commission-DG EMPL Peer Review Programme and focuses on the Danish policy to increase social responsibility of enterprises. The paper describes the main elements of this policy (section 2), discusses the results so far (section 3) and presents some viewpoints in the current Danish debate (section 4). Section 5 includes some concluding remarks.
Encouraging social responsibility of enterprises is one of the means to promote what in Denmark today is termed an inclusive labour market. The inclusive labour market is, according to current governmental thinking, a vision for the Danish welfare society. An inclusive labour market is one with “a place for everyone”, i.e. also for persons with a reduced working capacity, disabled, ethnic minorities and long-term unemployed – that is persons who have traditionally had difficulties in obtaining or remaining in employment. An inclusive labour market is adapted to the needs and capabilities of diverse human beings, also employees, who should be able to reconcile work and family life.
The policy to increase the social responsibility of enterprises and to promote an inclusive labour market includes several specific policy areas. In this paper the point of departure is primarily social policy and to some extent labour market policy.