New agreement for non-profit organisations reduces weekly hours by 30 minutes

Weekly working hours for around 10,000 employees in Swedish non-profit associations and sports organisations have been reduced by 30 minutes, under the terms of a new collective agreement signed in October 1997.

On 10 October 1997, Arbetsgivaralliansen, a small employers' association for non-profit organisations and enterprises, and the Salaried Employees' Union (HTF) concluded a collective agreement on wages and general terms of employment, in which part of the scope for wage increases was used to reduce weekly working hours by 30 minutes for full-time workers. A pay increase of 2% of the total paybill (or at least SEK 300 per employee) is to be allocated in negotiations at company level. The company trade union branches can, however, agree with the individual employers to waive the reduction of working hours if they wish and obtain a further 1% in pay instead.

At the same time, the provisions regarding the organisation of working time were made more flexible. Regular working hours, which must not exceed 40 hours per week, are now calculated as an average over a six-month period instead of four weeks as hitherto. The overtime limit has been lowered from 200 hours to 100 hours.

According to earlier agreements, workers whose wages exceeded a certain level did not receive compensation for overtime work. On the other hand they had 30 days of holidays, while workers with wages below the limit had 25. This limit has now been abolished. From now on it is up to the employer and the workers to choose if a certain employee should be entitled to overtime compensation, or if he or she should have longer holidays instead.