New agreement signed for blue-collar municipal workers

In April 2005, following mediation, the Swedish Municipal Workers’ Union and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions concluded a new two-year pay agreement for 380,000 blue-collar workers employed by municipalities and city councils. This deal completed the 2005-6 bargaining round in the municipal and regional sector, following earlier agreements for white-collar and professional workers.

On 15 April 2005, the Swedish Municipal Workers’ Union (Sveriges Kommunalarbetarförbund, Kommunal) and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting, SKL) - created on 1 January 2005 by the merger of the former Swedish Association of Local Authorities (Kommunförbundet) and the Federation of Swedish County Councils (Landstingsförbundet) (SE0203101N) - concluded a new pay agreement covering 378,600 blue-collar workers, mostly women, employed by the municipalities and city councils, usually in hospitals, healthcare centres and childcare centres. The agreement runs for two years, from 1 April 2005 to 30 June 2006. This was the last agreement in the municipal and regional bargaining round.

The old pay agreement for blue-collar workers in the municipal and city council sectors expired on 31 March 2005. It had been signed in May 2003 after the largest industrial conflict Sweden has experienced in the last 10 years, with about five weeks of strike action involving 110,000 union members. Among other issues, the wages of the lowest paid workers, aged 19 and over, were raised in two stages (SE0306103F). Kommunal had presented its demands for a new agreement in December 2004, including a general right for part-time workers to work full time, a general wage rise for all workers, a monthly minimum wage of SEK 15,000 for all, and more influence over planning and staffing at the workplace (SE0412103F).

The negotiations became deadlocked in April 2005 and the state mediators were called in. However, on this occasion the mediators resolved the difficulties without any conflict actions even being threatened, to the stated satisfaction of both parties.

New agreement

The new municipal/city council blue-collar agreement provides for a minimum 'space' for monthly pay increases of SEK 510 per employee for 2005 and SEK 500 for 2006, to be distributed in local negotiations. Furthermore, there is an individual guarantee of a monthly increase of at least SEK 175 for 2005 and SEK 175 for 2006. The 'wage space' for 2005 is equal to the average increase received in the current bargaining round by all workers represented by the Swedish Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisationen, LO), to which Kommunal is affiliated.

The lowest monthly wage for employees aged 19 years will be raised in 2005 to at least SEK 13,400 and in 2006 to at least SEK 13,800. For employees with vocational training acquired in an upper secondary school and with one year of professional experience, the lowest monthly wage will be raised to SEK 15,000 in 2006. All wage increases apply from 1 April in each year. The final wage rises will be negotiated locally and the bargaining space may be expanded in these negotiations.

The average monthly wage for blue-collar Kommunal members was SEK 16,300 in 2003. For white-collar workers, the average monthly wage was SEK 22,900. Building workers received an average SEK 22,500 and metalworkers in manufacturing industry SEK 19,100 in 2003.

A new collective agreement on the working environment (SE0503102F) and cooperation between the social partners was negotiated and concluded in parallel with the negotiation of the new pay agreement. The new cooperation agreement is a development of earlier agreements covering municipalities, city councils and regions. It is a central agreement, not binding for individual local authorities. The central parties, however, see it as important that the local parties work towards local agreements on cooperation, health and the working environment. The new cooperation agreement focuses more than its predecessor on working environment issues.

Other agreements in the sector

There is a total of around 1.1 million employees in the municipal and regional sector. Other than the blue-collar workers represented by Kommunal, the remaining 700,000 employees are white-collar workers and university graduates/professionals. From December 2004 to the beginning of April 2005, the SKL employers' organisation negotiated and concluded collective pay agreements with the unions representing white-collar workers and professionals in the sector. The first union to arrive at an agreement, on 17 December 2004, was the Swedish Association of Health Professionals (Vårdförbundet), representing nurses. It was followed in March 2005 by the National Teachers’ Union (Lärarnas Riksförbund, LR) and the Swedish Teachers’ Union (Lärarförbundet, LF), which are affiliated to different confederations - the Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations (Svenska Akademikers Centralorganisation, SACO) and Swedish Confederation of Salaried Professionals (Tjänstemännens Centralorganisation, TCO) respectively - but bargain together. Shortly afterwards, the Swedish Medical Association (Svenska Läkarförbundet) concluded its pay agreement for doctors with SKL, as did the Association for University Graduates in Economics, Social Science, Social Work etc (Akademikerförbundet SSR). The Swedish Association for Managerial and Professional Staff (Ledarna) also concluded a pay agreement with the employers at around the same time, as did the white-collar Swedish Union of Local Government Officers (Sveriges Kommunaltjänstemannaförbund, SKTF). All agreements for white-collar workers and professionals provide for wage increases of at least 2% in 2005 and 2% in 2006.

The only trade unions that did not negotiate in the current bargaining round were 19 associations affiliated to SACO grouped in an alliance (Akademikeralliansen), which concluded an indefinite agreement in 2001 (SE0105102F). None of the parties wanted to cancel this agreement.

Commentary

Kommunal has in recent years prioritised bargaining over wage rises specifically for its lowest paid (generally female) members. Kommunal has the lowest-paid membership of all LO-affiliated unions. As it is also the largest LO union, with about 595,000 members in various occupational categories, the union has not been able to satisfy all its members. Two, mainly male, groups of 'dissatisfied' worker - several hundred ambulance drivers and part-time firefighters - left Kommunal in early 2005 in order to start an organisation of their own, the Firefighters’ National Union (Brandmännens Riksförbund, BRF). The ambulance drivers concerned appear to be most upset about their pension age being raised from 60 to 65 years, while the firefighters are generally discontent with the current board of Kommunal, claiming that it promotes the wage demands of mainly female groups and does not care about the smaller male-dominated occupational groups in the union. In the long run, BRF aims to create an interest organisation for workers in all emergency services, with a target of about 20,000 members. The chair of Kommunal, Ylva Thörn, has not expressed any fears of some of the male-dominated groups leaving the union permanently. She hopes to start discussions with the dissatisfied groups and is certain that matters can be resolved.

During bargaining over the new blue-collar pay agreement, two city councils announced that they had promised already to offer a minimum wage at SEK 15,000 for all lowest-paid Kommunal workers. This is very rare in Sweden, as it is considered mandatory to remain silent about coming decentralised negotiations until the national agreement is concluded. (Annika Berg, Arbetslivsinstitutet)