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Politics

PM announces new jobs package

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January 15th, 2013


This article is more than 11 years old.

Ministers have until March to come up with new policies that can create jobs and improve competition

PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt (Socialdemokraterne) used her weekly press meeting today to announce that her government was drawing up a new job stimulus package.

 “The government is going to increase its efforts to improve competition and create employment,” Thorning-Schmidt said, adding that ministers have until March to come up with policies to reinvigorate the economy.

“We need to find the right proposals to improve our competitiveness and create jobs. It’s a challenge that we are going to take particularly seriously. But I also want to underline that there aren’t any shortcuts and we need to find proposals that work.”

Thorning-Schmidt said she had not ruled out implementing tax cuts for businesses, but that there was no sure-fire way to reinvigorate the economy.

“There is a lot of focus on the affect taxes and fees have on competition […] But while it is easy to promise to cut taxes, it is much harder to finance them.”

Jyllands-Posten newspaper last week already reported that the government was likely to embark on a new economic direction in light of poor polls and perceived dissatisfaction with Thorning-Schmidt’s leadership.

Last year’s job package aimed at finding work for long-term unemployed,who stand to lose their dagpenge benefits after a reform took affect this month, has also been criticised for coming up with far too few jobs for the estimated 23,000 people that will be affected by the change.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”