2000 Annual Review for Sweden

This record reviews 2000's main developments in industrial relations in Sweden.

Political developments

The government which was elected in September 1998 for a period of four years will remain in power until September 2002. It is a minority Social Democratic Party (Socialdemokratiska Arbetarepartiet, SAP) administration that mostly rules with the help of the Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) and the Green Party (Miljöpartiet de Gröna).

Collective bargaining

In March 2000, parliament approved a bill concerning the new National Mediation Office (Medlingsinstitutet), aimed at mediating in industrial conflicts and working towards a well-functioning system of pay determination (SE9912110F), which began work on 1 June 2000. The legislation lays down rules on bargaining procedures and timetables, industrial action and the intervention of mediators. By registering agreements on bargaining procedures, the bargaining parties in a sector may follow their own agreed rules instead of the statutory rules on mediation. Notable agreements of this type were signed in local and central government in 2000 (SE0006146N).

It is not possible to provide reliable data on the number of collective agreements in force in Sweden, as agreements are not formally registered.

Pay

Most of the pay bargaining issues were dealt with in the 1998 bargaining round, which resulted in the conclusion of three-year national sectoral collective agreements, most of which were due to expire in the spring of 2001. These national sectoral agreements served as a framework for negotiations at local level between employers and trade unions or trade union representatives. The pay rises provided for under the 1998 deals averaged 3% for 2000

However, some exceptions to this general principle took place in 2000. The teaching and local government sectors, represented by the Swedish Association for Local Authorities (Svenska Kommunförbundet), started negotiations in spring 2000. In spite of mediation, the teachers refused to accept the final offer of a five-year agreement (SE0005142F) and further negotiations were postponed until the autumn. The negotiations were then restarted and finally ended on 21 December with the conclusion of a new collective agreement (SE0101179N). The new accord will run for five years and covers a majority of all school teachers in Sweden - some 200,000 members of the two main trade unions, the Swedish Teachers' Union (Lärarförbundet) and the National Union of Teachers (Lärarnas riksförbund). The agreement includes a guarantee that the pay rise for teachers will be at least 6% for the first two years. The parties have set a goal of a pay rise of 20% in total over the five-year period.

In March, a pay accord was negotiated for some 90,000 nurses, midwives and biomedical analysts employed by the local and county authorities (SE0005133N). The accord provides for a guaranteed pay rise of at least 2% a year. Actual increases beyond this will be negotiated at local level and the increases will be linked to results achieved by individual workers. According to the unions' calculations, the result may well be a 25% pay rise over five years owing to, among other factors, a significant lack of skilled nurses both now and in the years to come.

A new collective agreement was concluded in November in the pharmacy sector (SE0012172N), after a minor conflict in October and November. The deal provides for a pay rise of 3.38% over 10 months, in order to permit the next bargaining round in this industry to coincide with the spring 2001 bargaining round in other sectors.

Working time

There was no particular bargaining on working time in Sweden during 2000, as this issue was generally included in the 1998 bargaining round (see above under "Pay"), when almost all agreements, apart from those for state employees, introduced new provisions on both the length and the organisation of working time (SE9806190F). However, there was a lively discussion on this issue among the social partners and in both the government and parliament (SE0004139F) (see below under "Legislative developments").

Job security

Job security in Sweden is regulated in special legislation dating from 1982 - the Employment Protection Act (anställningskyddslagen). Some of the provisions contained in the Act are optional and it is thus possible to negotiate on some issues. A minor change to the Act was decided in October 2000, when parliament voted down the government and reinstalled a former exception to the redundancy selection criteria system, based on the "last in-first out" principle. Under the amendment, small companies are permitted to exempt two of their workers from this provision. The rule applies only to companies with 10 or fewer employees (SE0011165N).

Training and skills development

The issue of training and skills development seems certain to be included in the main bargaining round in 2001. More focus on training and skills development has been a union demand for some time - many of the three-year agreements concluded in 1998 mentioned the issue, though usually in the form of general declarations stating that all workers are entitled to recurrent training, and that the employers should map out the training needs for each employee. Meanwhile, a draft reform of individual skills development was presented in December 2000 (see below under "Legislative developments").

Legislative developments

There were a number of legislative developments in 2000 (as well as the adoption of the legislation on the new National Mediation Office - see above under "Collective bargaining"). A working group set up by the government to look into the issue of working time presented a report in the spring of 2000 (SE0004139F), and it was generally expected that the government would present a bill on working time reduction in the autumn. However, for political reasons the government decided to postpone the issue until after the election in 2002 (SE0011173F). Meanwhile, at the end of December the government appointed another commission briefed to examine potential amendments to working time legislation. This commission is due to report in 1 June 2002.

In the area of individual skills development, a proposal from a commissioner who started work in January 2000 (SE0001118N) was presented in December 2000 (SE0101178F). The proposed reform is based on the idea that employees should have an individual skills development account which does not have to be linked to a particular place of employment. The rules surrounding such an account would be similar to those which apply to individual pensions provision, and each individual should have their own account in a bank or insurance company of their choice. The scheme is planned to begin in January 2002.

A governmental committee presented the first version of a proposed change to the health and sickness insurance system in August (SE0008160N). The change included an extension from 14 to 60 days of the period during which the employer is responsible for sick pay. The proposal met with significant opposition from the social partners. At the end of December, the committee presented its final report containing its whole proposal. The government is expected to present a bill on this issue in 2001.

In August 2000, a commissioner appointed by the government presented a final report on the rehabilitation of incapacitated employees. A new form of rehabilitation insurance was proposed, along with other measures such as the installation of a main public "insurer" with economic and administrative responsibility for the new insurance, and a new authority, the Rehabilitation Board (Rehabiliteringsstyrelsen). The proposed rehabilitation reform should be decided in parallel with the reform of the sickness insurance system mentioned above (SE0011161F)

During the past few years, there has been considerable public discussion concerning the current work injury insurance system. The authorities are said to be too severe in their judgment of an injury as a possible work injury. The insurance scheme is also said to be unfavourable towards women. The Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees (Tjänstemännens Centralorganisation, TCO) has reported the matter as a case of gender discrimination to the European Court of Human Rights. The government has, however, announced that it wishes to postpone establishing a commission to examine the issue until 2002.

In July 2000, the government commissioned the National Institute for Working Life (Arbetslivsinstitutet) to conduct a study to examine a possible overhaul of certain important aspects of legislation governing job security. The study should be carried out in the light of changes in the Swedish labour market and economy, such as the growth of "atypical" work. The government wants to find out whether or not the existing rules meet employees' demands for security and influence within the framework of a flexible and effective labour market. The study is to be carried out with the support of the social partners and should be completed before December 2001 (SE0008158N).

Finally, in June the government presented a bill seeking to establish a "fairer and more distinct" unemployment insurance system (SE0008157F). The reform will not involve a major increase in the current earnings-related ceiling on the maximum level of unemployment benefit - increasing this ceiling is a major concern for higher-paid workers. Soon after the bill was presented, the Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations (Sveriges Akademikers Centralorganisation, SACO) launched a supplementary unemployment insurance scheme for its members, which will cover their real loss of income in the event of unemployment. In December, the bill was debated by parliament.

The organisation and role of the social partners

The discussion of a number of trade union mergers - eg between the TCO-affiliated Swedish Union of Local Government Officers (Sveriges Kommunaltjänstemannaförbund) and Financial Sector Union of Sweden (Finansförbundet) - continued into 2000. However, no mergers took place during 2000. At the end of December, the Social Insurance Employees' and Insurance Agents' Union (Försäkringsanställdas förbund, FF) - which is affiliated to the mainly blue-collar Swedish Trade Union Confederation (Landsorganisationen, LO) and has 13,000 active members working in social insurance offices - announced its application for membership of the TCO white-collar workers' confederation. This was the first time in Swedish trade union history that a blue-collar worker union had expressed a desire to leave LO in order to join a white-collar confederation.

Industrial action

There were no major strikes or other industrial action in 2000, largely because the social partners were subject to the peace obligation contained in the three-year collective agreements negotiated in 1998.

There were, however, two notable minor outbreaks of industrial action - the theatre workers' three-days ban on certain work in all public theatres in Sweden in February (SE0003128N) and the pharmacy workers' conflict over pay in the autumn (SE0012172N). In the latter case, after some weeks of a ban on overtime work and on extra work at other pharmacies, a deal was reached (see above under "Pay").

In March 2000, during the parliamentary debate on the bill establishing the new National Mediation Office (see above under "Collective bargaining"), the opposition succeeded in reintroducing a ban, first imposed in 1994, on industrial action against sole traders and family companies with no employees other than family members (though once the company owner takes on a non-family worker, the normal rules will apply) (SE0004132N).

National Action Plan (NAP) on employment

Sweden's 2000 NAP contained declarations that the social partners would support the EU Employment Guidelines and that they would, together with the government, work for their fulfilment and ensure a major impact on Swedish employment policy (SE0005144F). In practice, this means mainly that the social partners take an active part in current discussions with the government about the Swedish economy. However, the social partners have no specific input into particular themes included in the NAP. The Swedish tradition imposes a strict separation between the affairs of the social partners and the politicians in the government and parliament. Likewise, the social partners do not generally improve of the government interfering in pay bargaining or any other bargaining issues.

Equal opportunities and diversity issues

A number of changes to the Act for Equal Opportunities between Men and Women (jämställdhetslagen) were decided by parliament in October 2000. The ban on gender-based discrimination is extended to include job applicants during the whole recruitment process and applies even if there is no decision taken on the job applied for. Employers are obliged to investigate and analyse pay and other employment conditions annually in order to discover, deal with and prevent unjustified differences between men and women who are performing work of the same or equal value. The result of the investigation and the analysis should be set out in an action plan for equal pay. The reforms came into force on 1 January 2001 (SE0102179N).

There was no significant debate concerning the new EU Directive on race discrimination (2000/43/EC) during 2000. Sweden already has an Act on Ethnic Discrimination at Work (SE9903148F) that came into force on 1 May 1999. If changes to the current legislation are necessary in order to comply with the Directive, these will be implemented in due time either through collective agreements or legislation. Equally, any changes to Swedish legislation requires by the EU framework equality Directive (2000/78/EC) will be made either by collective agreement or legislation, although any changes are thought to be minor - Sweden has legislation preventing discrimination in working life which contains bans on discrimination on the grounds of disability, sexual orientation, gender, race and religious belief, but not on age.

A project on "diversity in working life" (mångfaldsprojektet) was initiated by the government in 1999. The aim of the project was to investigate how gender, ethnic background, age, functional disabilities, sexual orientation and social background influence people's prospects at work. The final report ("Alla lika är olika"" DS 2000:69) was presented on 19 December 2000. The report proposes reinforcing protection against all kinds of discrimination in working life. It also states that the government and the governmental authorities must set a good example in recruiting job applicants with different backgrounds. "

Information and consultation of employees

There were no significant developments or public debate in the area of information and consultation in Sweden during 2000.

New forms of work

In the field of temporary agency work, a number of important collective agreements were concluded during 2000. In February, a new collective agreement for 20,000 salaried employees in the temporary work agency sector was concluded. Under the agreement, workers will receive an increased "minimum or guaranteed wage" and they will be permitted to undergo training during working hours (SE0003127N). In September, the first sectoral collective agreement was concluded for blue-collar workers employed by temporary work agencies in Sweden (SE0011163N). The deal was signed by the relevant affiliates of the LO trade union confederation and the Swedish Service Employers' Association (Tjänsteföretagens Arbetsgivareförbund, Almega). The agreement guarantees that temporary agency workers organised in LO-affiliated unions will receive the same pay and employment conditions as the equivalent permanent employees at the user company's workplace.

More generally, a government-commissioned study is at present looking into Swedish job security legislation (see above under "Legislative developments") and an investigation of the various new forms of work is a central part of the research (SE0008158N). The findings are due to be presented by the end of 2001.

Outlook

The Swedish economy should continue to perform relatively strongly during 2001. The bargaining round for most of the collective agreements at national sectoral level will dominate industrial relations for at least the first half of the year (the first agreement, in the chemicals industry, was signed in January 2001 - SE0101177N). Given the favourable economic environment, it is generally expected that trade unions will raise their demands and so bargaining may be rather tough. The most recent major bargaining in 1998 generated three-year agreements - in the 2001 round, the duration of the agreements is an open question. Working time and skill development issues will be present in the negotiations, in addition to pay issues. However, some economic institutions, such as the National Institute of Economic Research (Konjunkturinstitutet) and Swedbank (Föreningssparbanken) warned at the end of 2000 that a slowing down of the economy may be in prospect. Export demand fell in December 2000 to the lowest level of the year, which many believe heralds a slackening of the economy.

In terms of new legislation, a number of labour market and social insurance reforms (see above under "Legislative developments") are likely to be passed by parliament during 2001 (such as unemployment insurance, sickness insurance and rehabilitation reform). The proposal on individual skill accounts will be the subject of much public debate in 2001, while working time legislation will in all probability not be discussed, although this topic is likely to be prominent after the next general election in 2002.