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Copenhagen Municipality demands payment from company accused of underpaying drivers

The Local Denmark
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Copenhagen Municipality demands payment from company accused of underpaying drivers
Illustration photo. The city of Copenhagen has demanded contractor Intervare, owner of popular online supermarket Nemlig, repay millions of kroner amid accusations of social dumping. Photo by Maria Lin Kim on Unsplash

The Copenhagen Municipality wants the company Intervare, owner of online shopping firm Nemlig.com, to pay back millions of kroner amid accusations it underpaid drivers.

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A new report on social dumping, undertaken by Copenhagen Municipality, states that the city has demanded 4.7 million kroner from Intervare for unpaid wages for 72 drivers who delivered shopping to residents in the city, political media Altinget reports.

The company was subcontracted by Copenhagen Municipality to deliver goods to vulnerable residents.

According to the city council, however, Intervare systematically underpaid staff while also requiring them to work for 12 hours without breaks and denying them sickpay, Altinget writes.

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“Although most companies behave properly, it is clear that there are still some bad eggs amongst the companies the municipality works with,” the Mayor of Copenhagen, Sophie Hæstorp Andersen, told Altinget.

“In that light, I’m happy that our control checks ensure a record high rebate to the workers who have been let down,” she said.

Intervare has repeatedly denied underpaying drivers who made deliveries on behalf of Copenhagen Municipality.

Nemlig.com, owned by Intervare, is Denmark’s biggest online grocery shopping service and experienced considerable growth during the Covid-19 crisis.

Social dumping is the practice of employers using cheaper labour than is usually available at their site of production or sale, for example by using migrant workers and paying them less than local minimum wages or outside the terms of local bargaining agreements.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: What is a Danish collective bargaining agreement?

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