Denmark Will Compensate Private Wages to Avoid Virus Layoffs

(Bloomberg) --

Denmark will compensate as much as 75% of the wages for some private sector employees who face losing their jobs as the economy slows down due to the spread of the coronavirus.

Companies in danger of having to cut at least 30% of their workforce or 50 people or more can apply for the compensation if they abstain from letting employees go, the government said Sunday at a Copenhagen briefing. The new initiative runs until June 9 and the government expects about 70,000 people to be covered.

Denmark expects the new measures will be approved by the European Union Commission, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters.

Frederiksen also said that two Danes have died from the virus and the number of confirmed cases has risen to 864. Authorities will now test fewer people and the government expects that the real number of infected people is much higher.

To contact the reporter on this story: Morten Buttler in Copenhagen at mbuttler@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christian Wienberg at cwienberg@bloomberg.net

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