Five-year pay agreement for teachers finally concluded

After some 14 months of discussion, a new five-year pay agreement for teachers employed by municipal authorities in Sweden was concluded in December 2000. Although all teachers will, if possible, receive a 20% pay rise over the five-year period, the only guaranteed pay rises are 4% in the first year and 2% in the second. Local and individual agreements will play a major role in implementing the new accord.

A new five-year collective agreement covering 200,000 teachers employed by municipal authorities (the majority of teachers in Sweden) was concluded in 21 December 2000 by the Swedish Association for Local Authorities (Kommunförbundet) - negotiating on behalf of the 289 municipalities in Sweden - and the Swedish Teachers' Union (Lärarförbundet, LF) and the National Union of Teachers (Lärarnas Riksförbund), united in the Teachers' Cooperation Council (Lärarnas Samverkansråd). The negotiations had been lengthy (SE9910100N), lasting 14 months in all, with the trade unions rejecting a final offer from employers in the first round of talks in spring 2000, following a vote against the proposal by LF (SE0005142F). In October 2000, the negotiations started again under the leadership of two mediators, in line with the provisions of the agreement on cooperation and bargaining procedures in local authorities concluded in April 2000 (SE0006146N).

The parties finally agreed in December on the main goal of the new collective agreement. All teachers will, if possible, receive a 20% pay rise during the five-year period starting from October 2000. However, the only guaranteed pay rises apply to the first two years - 4% in the first year and 2% in the second. Furthermore, teachers' influence on their employment conditions will be improve on issues such as working time, work environment and skill development. The local parties will negotiate over the details of improving working conditions and local pay arrangements, resulting in local collective agreements. Actual pay is individual and differentiated and may be negotiated directly by the local employer and the individual teachers, or if they wish by their trade union.

According to the collective agreement, the employers will have a continuing responsibility for wage formation and pay setting, which should stimulate improvements in effectiveness, productivity and quality at the workplace. Pay should be individual and differentiated and reflect goals and results. Before the annual pay review for teachers there will be consultations with local trade unions, though the result of these discussions will not have the status of a collective agreement. However, local parties may demand that the pay review should be conducted through ordinary negotiations. The procedure for pay reviews should be as follows: after presenting a pay review proposal to an individual employee, the employer passes it on to the local trade union of which the employee is a member; If the trade union does not call for local negotiations, the employer's proposal is accepted.

The parties recommend that all parts of the new collective agreement should be negotiated in local collective agreements. By 15 May 2001, the local parties in all 289 municipalities should conclude local agreements, setting out plans and measures to address unsatisfactory work environments and work organisation, and the other improvements in employment conditions targeted in the new collective agreement. If one party, either central or local, is dissatisfied with the development of local negotiations, notice may be given to terminate the agreement, starting from 30 June 2001 - a point of which the Teachers' Cooperation Council took special note in the collective agreement.

The chair of the Swedish Association for Local Authorities,Åke Hillman, expressed satisfaction with the emphasis in the agreement on the role of individual teachers in contributing to the fulfilment of the tasks of schools; where they achieve good results, individual teachers will achieve encouragement in form of an "extra" pay rise. However, the two teachers' trade unions have expressed some scepticism over whether and how pupils' results should be linked to pay.