The collective rights of employees

Five weeks of paid vacation. More than a year of parental leave. Employer pension contributions. Sweden’s long tradition of labor market policies has resulted in all kinds of employee benefits. But how did they become basic rights for all Swedish employees by law? Collective bargaining has played a central role, as well as a well established culture of cooperation between employers, employees and unions.

In most Swedish workplaces, there is a collective agreement. A collective agreement is an agreement between unions and employers on wages and working conditions in force at the workplace: wages, working hours, compensation for sickness leave and injury, etc. The collective agreement includes insurance for employees, such as sickness and accident insurance.

Swedish trade and labor unions have been important in organizing workers in both the private and public sectors. One of their main roles is to drive and support collective bargaining, in which unions negotiate with employers to ensure a common set of rights that apply to all employees at a workplace, regardless of whether or not they are union members. This can range from wage agreements to the right to take organized action, including strikes and lockouts.

But in most cases, collective bargaining is by far much less dramatic than this. For workers in Sweden, it is a matter of everyday life and job security. Collective bargaining agreements vary from sector to sector. Whether it applies to work contracts, working hours, equality or other working conditions, each agreement has full legal force. This means that if a dispute arises, it can be negotiated by the local union directly with the employer, or by the national union at a regional or central level.

The collective agreement is your guarantee that the same rules apply for you as for other employees and sets a limit on minimum conditions. The employer can of course offer better terms than what the collective agreement states — but not worse. If a workplace has no collective agreement, it is the employer who determines the conditions. The local union can help you establish collective bargaining at the workplace.

Always make sure to ask your union or employer about your specific rights and benefits.