OK26: State-sector collective agreement now in place
On 11 February 2026, the Danish minister of finance entered into a new state-sector collective agreement (OK26) with the Danish Central Federation of State Employees’ Organisations (CFU) and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations.
The agreement covers a three-year period and comes into force on 1 April 2026. The agreed wage increases and other benefits and will be implemented over the period 2026-2028 at the times agreed on in the agreement.
Read the agreement here (in Danish).
For employees in the state sector, which includes the universities, the main results of the agreement are:
The agreement will officially come into force when new circular are issued by the ministry.
The university may not start implementing the new agreement until the circulars have been published. The university will continue to comply with existing circulars and collective agreements until the new ones have been officially released.
If you have any questions about OK26, you can contact your local HR team.
Update as of 4 June 2026:
The Danish Agency for Public Finance and Management has stated that, pending publication of the collective agreements, employees may be granted leave with pay on the recall day and on the child’s third sickness day, provided that workplace conditions allow.
This means that employees at Aarhus University will, going forward, have the possibility of taking leave with pay on the recall day and/or on the child’s third sickness day, if operational requirements permit.
As mentioned above, a number of initiatives will be introduced with effect from 1 April 2026 to improve parental leave conditions, including:
The changes to the parental leave agreement apply to children born on or after 1 April 2026. However, Aarhus University will only be able to administer the new rules once the state parental leave agreement has been formally issued.
Employees who meet the conditions for the new salary entitlements will receive them with retroactive effect once the agreement has been published.
From 1 January 2027, a salary entitlement will also be introduced for the surviving parent in the event of the death of the other parent. This is subject to the adoption of the relevant legislative proposal, which was sent for consultation on 7 January 2026.