The Swedish Trade Union Confederation has called for reforms to labour immigration policy. It says employers should have to prove a real need for foreign workers to fill gaps in the labour market. Before rules were changed in 2008, employers needed approval from the Swedish Public Employment Service to bring in foreign workers. Today, no such approval is needed. Unions say the new rules have led to the exploitation of workers. The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise disagrees.
Background
In December 2008, Sweden introduced new rules governing labour immigration from countries outside the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA). The new rules were brought in to increase flexibility and efficiency in the labour market. The changes allowed employers to decide whether there was a shortage of labour. That decision determined whether work and residency permits could be issued to workers from other countries.
In the past, this decision had been taken by the Swedish Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen). Current rules mean an employer can apply for the right to recruit labour from outside the EU and EEA directly from the Swedish Migration Board (Migrationsverket).
Criticism of the reform
The Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO), which represents 14 blue-collar member unions, has evaluated the labour immigration reforms in a new report Cheating and abuse – The liberalisation of labour migration (in Swedish, 2.3MB PDF). The confederation said in an article (in Swedish) on its website that two-thirds of permits for non-Nordic citizens were issued for professions where there was already high domestic competition for jobs.
The professions included cleaners, construction workers and employees in the hospitality sector. According to LO, the reform had not helped plug gaps in the labour market. Instead it had shifted the power balance from employees in favour of employers. According to LO, this had opened the doors to the exploitation of immigrant workers.
LO has called for new rules to ensure the Swedish Migration Board or some other authority is obliged by law to examine the credibility of employers and their job offers. The confederation also believes that issuing work permits that oblige workers to leave Sweden if their contract is terminated makes employees too dependent on their employer. This type of dependency is a threat to an employee’s right to raise concerns in the workplace.
LO’s Migration Political Analyst Thord Ingesson said in a newspaper article (in Swedish):
...we are not saying that the unions should have a veto in this matter, but we think that permits should be based on some kind of list from the Employment Agency, which shows in which fields employers are having problems finding people.
According to Mr Ingesson, LO does not oppose regulations that make it easier for people from third counties to work in Sweden. The confederation wants to change and improve the regulations on how this happens in order to stop companies circumventing the rules. He says job offers must be binding and the employee must also be given the chance to stay in the country for the duration of the work permit. This should be the case even if the employee leaves a job because they consider their working conditions to be unreasonable.
Response from the employer side
LO’s proposal has been widely criticised by employers’ associations. The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv) says in an online article (in Swedish) that the union proposals would make the Swedish labour market less efficient and flexible. It says no one knows the needs of the labour market as well as the employers.
The employers say the solution is not to transfer the decision-making power to the authorities, but to increase cooperation between authorities to improve the continuous control of employers. It says authorities should have greater opportunities to stop employers who exploit immigrant workers.
The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise does share LO’s concerns about work permits which stipulate that workers have to leave Sweden if the contract is terminated. According to the Confederation, it should be made easier to gain permanent residency and employees should not be tied to their first employer in the country. That would strengthen the worker’s chances of switching employer if the details of their contract were not honoured.
Commentary
Reform has been widely discussed ever since labour immigration regulations were relaxed in 2008. The social partners agree that third-country nationals coming to work in Sweden should enjoy the same wages and work benefits as other employees. What they disagree on is how to achieve this.
Emilia Johansson and Malena Heed, Oxford Research