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There are three parties to the negotiation. LO, which represents workers, PTK, which represents salaried employees, and the Confederation of Swedish Enterprises, which represents employers.
So what are you talking about? Simply put, there are three areas. Conditions of hiring, adjustment and unemployment insurance fund.
Conditions of employment have been the most controversial point so far. The Confederation of Swedish Companies wants more exceptions to the priority rules in case of dismissal, while LO does not want the labor legislation to be relaxed.
Claes Stråth is a former CEO of the Mediation Institute and has worked with labor market issues for decades. He thinks it’s easier to talk about multiple areas at the same time.
– It is a great advantage that these negotiations do not only concern one single issue, employment protection, but also completely different issues. It provides better conditions for the parties to agree, they can trade things with each other, which opens up compromises, he says.
Believes unions and employers want to keep politics out
However, the talks are taking place under great political pressure. If the parties do not reach an agreement on their own, the January agreement establishes that in that case they will legislate based on the latest investigation that was presented at the beginning of the summer. And then await the political battle. The Center Party and the Liberals then want to make law with the investigation, while the Left Party threatens to try to overthrow the government in that case.
Claes Stråth believes, however, that unions and employers will somehow want to agree to keep politicians out of the labor market.
– Neither party wants to risk wasting the opportunity to reach an agreement that can probably become historic in the same way as the Saltsjöbad agreement in 1938, he says.
Even if you agree, it will take some time before new rules exist across the job market. The agreements of the parties apply to 2.8 million people, but this is far from everything, for example, those who do not have a collective agreement are covered.
