INDUSTRIAL ACTION
| SWEDEN |
| FACKLIGA STRIDSÅTGÄRDER INDUSTRIAL ACTION |
Collective means of applying pressure in the labour market context in order to resolve clashes of interest regarding terms and conditions of employment or other aspects of the employer/employee relationship. The most common forms of action are work stoppages, i.e. strike and lockout. Other widely used measures include various types of boycott/blacking.
As is customary in democratic societies, it is upheld as a principle in Sweden that, failing any provision to the contrary by law or agreement, trade unions and employers are entitled to take industrial action against each other. This principle has been established in constitutional law since 1974 as a fundamental freedom and right (Chapter 2, Article 17 of the Instrument of Government). Provided no collective agreement is in force between the parties, work stoppages and other traditional forms of action are therefore generally lawful. By international standards, the right to take secondary action is particularly extensive in Swedish law. Industrial action is also used to put pressure on small employers to apply union standards (see boycott/blacking), although in practice this refers almost exclusively to manual employment.
Nevertheless, certain rules of conduct must be followed even though the industrial dispute itself will remain lawful. The party initiating the dispute must, for example, give the opposite party and the Mediation Agency advance notice of at least seven working days before the date on which the action is to be commenced or extended (see institutional advance notification).
By tradition, the individual contract of employment does not have to be terminated before a work stoppage takes place: the contract does not come to an end but is merely deemed to be suspended for the duration of the dispute. For this to be the case, however, on the employee side it is a precondition that the action must take place in organized forms by decision of an organization which can be a party to a collective agreement. Employees who go on strike without the authorization of a union are therefore liable to be found in breach of their contract of employment (see unofficial strike).
Scattered rules restrict the use of particular measures such as the eviction of employees from their homes (under the 1936 Act on Protection against Eviction during Industrial Disputes) and the withholding of outstanding pay (under the 1976 Co-Determination Act). Deeds which are punishable offences under ordinary law, e.g., assault and battery and taking the law into one's own hands, are of course likewise illegal when committed in the context of an industrial dispute. For rules on picketing, see picket.
As regards the particular case of industrial action against sole traders or purely family businesses, see family business.
During intervals when no collective agreement is in force in the sense that a customary agreement on pay and other employment conditions has expired, the legal assumption is that in principle the parties have the right to take industrial action against each other as a means of applying pressure in a dispute over the conclusion of a new agreement. It should, however, be noted that in this situation the parties may still be bound by a basic agreement or some other more permanent co-operation agreement. In so far as any such agreement contains rules on industrial action, those rules must continue to be observed during an interval of this kind. One such example is to be found in the rules laid down in Chapter III of the Saltsjöbaden Agreement concluded between SAF and LO, which inter alia to some extent restrict the right to take action against a neutral third party.
In the case of the public sector (see public employment), the general rule is that industrial action is permissible in accordance with the same principles as those applying in the private sector. Certain restrictions are imposed by the 1994 Public Employment Act, but are not very extensive. For work involving exercise of public authority (e.g. in the courts), one of the prohibitions is that the only form of limited action permitted is an overtime ban; on the other hand, ordinary strike action is lawful. As regards work other than that involving exercise of public authority, the only restriction imposed by the Act is that industrial action must not be directed at influencing Sweden's political situation. The rules specified in the Act are supplemented by provisions laid down in a basic agreement restricting, for example, the right to take industrial action in connection with issues for which regulation by collective agreement could be regarded as detrimental to political democracy.
Issues relating to the treatment of disputes threatening the public interest are dealt with under a number of basic agreements in both the private and the public sectors.
The state is normally expected to exhibit impartiality in the event of disputes between unions and employers. This principle is given expression in the 1969 Act on the Restriction of Social Assistance during Industrial Disputes (see social assistance during industrial disputes). In the final analysis, however, the government authorities can obviously intervene to put an end to industrial disputes which are jeopardizing the national economy or otherwise threatening the public interest (see social assistance during industrial disputes).
Once a collective agreement has been concluded, the right of the signatory parties and their members to engage in industrial action ceases to exist in principle, but not absolutely (see peace obligation).
Please note: the European industrial relations glossaries were compiled between 1991 and 2003 and are not updated. For current material see the European industrial relations dictionary.