Teachers win new pay deal after tough negotiations

Teachers in Sweden have accepted a pay deal after protracted negotiations and strike threats. The collective agreements for teachers in Sweden expired on 30 April 2012, and negotiations for a new deal entered the final stages in August 2012. Teachers had demanded significant salary increases, and stated their long term goal was a rise of €1,160 per month. In September, unions angered many of their members by accepting the terms of a four-year deal and a final offer of a 4.2 % rise.

Background

Teachers’ salaries in Sweden have, for some time, increased more slowly than those in occupations with comparable educational requirements. According to the report Education at a Glance 2012 (5.7Mb PDF) from the Oranisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Swedish education salaries are below the international average.

While Swedish GDP per capita is €32,150, significantly above the OECD international mean of €27,230, Swedish teachers’ average salaries lag behind the international average. For instance, teachers with 15 years of experience in lower secondary education have an annual salary of €30,288, compared to an international average of €37,107.

The unions claim teachers’ wages are too low by €1,160 per month, and this year’s negotiations were accompanied by a campaign calling for a bridging of this gap. Supporters of the increase say the teaching profession has been losing social standing and that teacher training courses are struggling to fill places. Already there is an urgent shortage of qualified teachers in the natural sciences subjects, especially in physics and chemistry.

How Swedish salary rises are set

In the Swedish model for setting salary levels, agreements in export-based industries are the benchmark for other sectors. The ‘norm-setting’ role of industry wage deals in Sweden is emphasised by the levels of salary increases agreed by private sector employer organisations. This year the industry norm was set at 2.6%.

However, in this year’s round of negotiations on teachers’ collective agreements, unions demanded significant increases beyond the industry norm. The employers’ organisation, the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SKL), offered a 4% increase this year, and a further rise above the industry norm next year. However, this was rejected by the unions and strike action was threatened.

Strike avoided

Two teachers’ unions, the National Union of Teachers in Sweden (LR) and the Swedish Teachers’ Union (Lärarförbundet), represent more than 200,000 teachers. They accepted the offers of mediators just as the official strike warning period was coming to an end on the evening of 27 September 2012.

The new agreement runs for four years until 31 March 2016, and this year’s pay award has been backdated the end of the old agreement in April. It gives teachers a rise of 4.2%, which is the highest figure for any sector in this year’s round of negotiations. The agreement also promises an increase next year which at least matches the next agreed industry norm.

For the final two years of the agreement, no fixed percentage rise has been agreed, leaving wage increases to be negotiated at local level. This is meant to allow for more individual differentiation among salary scales, and to reward the top performing teachers. This initiative was welcomed by the employers.

The agreement also includes a new clause allowing for its cancellation after two years and three months, on 30 June 2014.

LR Chair Metta Fjelkner, who took a key role in the negotiations, stressed in an interview (in Swedish) that if the local wage negotiations in 2014 did not give teachers significant benefits, then unions would not hesitate to cancel the agreement. This threat is significant because elections will be held at all levels of government early in the autumn of 2014.

Union dissatisfied

Not everyone is satisfied with the results of the negotiations. In an opinion piece (in Swedish) in the national newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SvD), members of the LR union were said to be demanding that Fjelkner step down from the role of union chair. Members are concerned that the agreement gives no promise of better than average wage rises for the coming year, and no set percentage rises at all for the final two years of the agreement. They are worried this will lead to the smallest possible increases. They say earlier trials of wage deals negotiated at local level have resulted in very small rises. This would leave teachers behind in wage settlements over the four-year period of the agreement.

Commentary

The new cancellation clause in the agreement is a positioning by the unions in preparation for the elections due to be held in 2014. The power to cancel the agreement and threats of strike action will most probably put the education system high on the agenda in the 2014 election campaign.

Emilia Johansson and Hjalmar Eriksson, Oxford Research