Survey finds good employer-union cooperation in companies

Managing directors believe that the 'cooperative climate' with trade unions is good or rather good in some 80% of Swedish companies, according to a survey published by the National Institute for Working Life in June 2004. However, the same survey also finds that the interest of managing directors in joint consultations with unions has diminished since 1996.

A study of co-determination based on a 2003 survey among managing directors and trade union representatives at a random selection of 555 companies with more than 25 employees (with a total response rate of 54%) was published in June 2004. The research was carried out by Klas Levinson of the National Institute for Working Life (Arbetslivsinstitutet). The study is entitled 'Joint consultations at local level - a survey of Swedish co-determination' (Lokal partssamverkan - en undersökning av svenskt medbestämmande). The survey was conducted in cooperation with the Swedish Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisationen, LO) and the Federation of Salaried Employees in Industry and Services (Privattjänstemannakartellen, PTK) bargaining cartel for white-collar workers’ and professionals’ trade unions. In 1996, the same author carried out a similar survey of 386 companies in industry (Klas Levinson: Medbestämmande i förändring, Arbetsmarknad & Arbetsliv, 1997). As Mr Levinson writes in the new report, the situation in 1996 was quite different, with economic expansion and optimism about the future. In today's period of economic difficulties (if not crisis), he believes, the concept of co-determination tends to be pushed into the background.

The key findings of the study include the following:

• joint consultation with trade unions is, according to managers, seldom financially burdensome for the enterprise;

• in 62% of the enterprises surveyed, according to employee representatives, joint consultations strengthen the status of the trade unions and their standing vis-à-vis management. In areas such as working time, work organisation and working environment, such consultation was seen as very or rather useful in 55% of the enterprises;

• the influence of employees, according to managers, has diminished since 1996. In 48% of companies, however, it it still seen as playing a great or decisive role in issues regarding the working environment and working time;

• the study identifies four phases in decision-making processes - initiation (introducing problems and possibilities), preparation (investigation of practical issues), decision (formal) and performance (implementing the decision). The survey found that employee participation occurred in 15% of companies surveyed at the initiation stage, 74% at the preparation stage, 94% at the decision stage and 100% at the performance state. Employee participation is thus rare when initiatives are taken, which may pose problems, according to the author, as freedom of action is reduced at the successive stages of the decision-making process;

• employees’ activities when participating in decision-making are listening in 34% of cases, asking for more information in 27% of cases, presenting their own demands in 30% of cases and designing their own alternatives in 9% of cases;

• negotiations under the terms of the Co-Determination Act (Medbestämmandelagen, MBL)(SE0309103T) are the most common (40%) method of co-determination, and are regarded by the study as as a formal method. Informal co-determination methods, as used by 28% of the companies surveyed, may lead to problems such as unclear decisions for the employees, the report claims;

• overall, the cooperative climate between employers and trade unions is, according to managers, very or rather good in 81% of enterprises surveyed; and

• the economic costs of joint consultations are, on the whole, modest in the surveyed companies. In 95% of the companies, the trade union representatives’ time spent on cooperation issues is on average less than 10 hours per month (time for preparation and follow-up included). This result is in line with another survey conducted at the beginning of the 1990s, which found that the total time for negotiations under the terms of the Co-Determination Act averaged less than 0.5% of the total working time in companies (SOU 1994: 141).