New pay agreements signed for government employees

In November/December 2004, new collective agreements were concluded in Sweden for 230,000 blue-collar, white-collar and professional employees in the central government sector. The deal for professional workers sets no central figure for pay rises, which will be determined entirely by local/individual bargaining. The white-collar deal also prioritises decentralised pay bargaining, but with a guaranteed minimum increase where this is unsuccessful of 7.3% over three years - the same rise guaranteed for blue-collar workers.

Negotiations over collective agreements for government employees started in September 2004, in one of the last stages of Sweden's 2004 bargaining round, which began in January ( SE0403103F). On 15 November, collective agreements were concluded by the Agency for Governmental Employers (Arbetsgivarverket): for professional workers with the state employees’ section (SACO-S) of the Swedish Association of Professional Employees (Sveriges Akademikers Centralorganisation, SACO); and for blue-collar workers with the Union for Service and Communication (Facket för service och kommunikation, SEKO), affiliated to the Swedish Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisationen, LO). The last agreement in the government sector, covering white-collar workers, was signed on 30 November 2004, after a longer than usual bargaining process.

The agreements with SACO-S and SEKO have a three-year term (1 October 2004 to 30 September 2007) and place the emphasis on decentralised and individual pay setting. The SEKO agreement guarantees in local pay negotiations a total rise of 7.3% over three years (2.4% in the first year, 2.4% in the second and 2.5% in the third). The SACO- S agreement is totally 'without figures' (sifferlöst avtal) and delegates the issue of determining the 'pay space' completely to local level, ie the parties at the various governmental authorities. It gives management and professional employees the possibility to hold individual pay-setting talks. This agreement without specific pay increase provisions for the 75,000 professionals employed by the state is similar to its predecessor, signed in the 2002 bargaining round (SE0206103N).

The entire central government sector has about 230,000 employees. Out of these about 100,000 are white-collar civil servants. Negotiations over a new agreement between the Public Employees’ Negotiation Council (Offentliganställdas Förhandlingsråd, OFR) - specifically its civil servants, police and army officers section (OFR/S, P, O) - and the Agency for Governmental Employers broke down at the beginning of November and mediators were called in on 13 November . The demands of OFR/S,P,O included:

• specific pay rises for workers at a new governmental authority administrating the social insurance system (Försäkringskassan), which starts work on 1 January 2005;

• improved employment conditions for employees in the armed forces (Försvarsmakten) posted abroad; and

• a clearer negotiating procedure for pay bargaining in the police force.

White-collar agreement

Mediation in the white-collar talks went on until 30 November 2004, when the Agency for Governmental Employers and OFR/S, P, O announced that they had accepted the final proposal of the two mediators. The agreement for white-collar civil servants, police and armed forces officers is, like those for the other two categories of state employees, a three-year deal running from 1 October 2004 to 30 September 2007. The local bargaining parties may negotiate over pay rises on a 'no figures' basis. If this does not prove successful, there will be guaranteed increases totaling 7.3% over three years (2.4% in the first year, 2.4% in the second and 2.5% in the third). As with the accord for professional workers, the white-collar agreement thus gives an opportunity - for the first time - for management and employees to agree pay increases without figures or a framework.

The new social insurance adminisitration authority (Försäkringskassan) starts its activities on 1 January 2005. The former 21 head social insurance offices at district level were independent authorities with no links to the governmental or municipal/city council authorities. The Civil Servants’ Union (Statstjänstemannaförbundet, ST), the trade union now representing the 15,000 employees in state insurance offices, on whose behalf OFR negotiates, demanded that staff at the local insurance offices should be given the same pay level as other civil servants represented by ST, involving an extra pay rise of about 6.5% to catch up with the other civil servants. The employers were unwilling to agree to this. In the compromise drawn up by the mediators, the employers make no direct promises on this point but it has been agreed that the average wage for employees at the new authority should not be unbalanced compared with other comparable groups. The general director of the new body has announced a survey of the current wage situation - if comparisons show that staff have work tasks comparable with those of other civil servants who are higher paid,. this will be attended to in 2005.

The union's two other demands regarding changes in the negotiating procedure for the police force and improved conditions for armed forces staff stationed abroad were resolved satisfactorily, according to all parties.

Local government bargaining

Early 2005 will see bargaining over new agreements for the municipality and city council sectors, to replace a two-year deal reached in 2003 after extensive industrial action (SE0306103F and SE0305101N).

The Municipal Workers' Union (Svenska Kommunalarbetareförbundet, Kommunal) was to hand over its demands officially to the Swedish Federation of Municipalities (Svenska Kommunförbundet) and Federation of City Councils (Landstingsförbundet) on 22 December 2004. The union announced its general demands in advance, including: a general right to work full time; a general wage rise for all Kommunal workers; a minimum wage of SEK 15,000 per month; and more influence over planning and staffing at the workplace.

Commentary:

Since 1998, most national sectoral collective agreements on pay and employment conditions have had a three-year duration. The 2004 bargaining round proceeded in rather the same way as the 1998 (SE9806190F) and 2001 (SE0105102F) rounds, sometimes with the help of mediation under the terms of various cooperation agreements concluded since 1997 (SE0203105F), resulting in fewer conflicts than in the 1990s and previously (SE0302102F). The abovementioned industrial action in the local public sector in spring 2003 was an exception. Minor conflicts have occurred, but mainly not specifically in connection with bargaining rounds and with pay bargaining. The traditional pattern of export-oriented industries starting the bargaining round and setting the benchmark for pay increases has been maintained. The rest of industry and private sector follow, followed by the central government sector and finally the local public sector. The pay rise in private sector industry for 2004-7 averages 7.3% in total over three years, including a working time cut worth 0.5%. This pay rise pattern was followed to a large extent in other sectors during 2004, though one exception is the low-wage commerce sector. where the workers have been awarded a 9% pay rise over three years, though without working time cuts. (Annika Berg, Arbetslivsinstitutet)