Non-standard Employment and Precarious work in Sweden

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1 Non-standard Employment and Precarious work in Sweden Annette Thörnquist

2 The Swedish labour market regime No statutory minimum wages No extended collective agreements Strong and well-organised social partners Union density 69% (61% Blue-Collar, 73% White-Collar) 78% of the employers are organised (private sector) Collective agreement coverage 89-90% (2016) Public sector 100% The social partners handle labour market issues mainly on their own Tripartite cooperation between the state and the social partners Active labour market policy Extensive social benefits (in an international perspective)

3 The Swedish labour law system Employment (grey area) Self-employment No legal third category Instead a wide and flexible labour law notion of employee If the employment status is unclear a multi-factor test on a case-by-case process All relevant aspects should be taken into consideration The labour law notion of employee is mandatory the decision of the courts takes precedence over the opinion of the contracting parties

4 Non-standard employment The share of fixed-term employment and part-time employment is above the average EU level Temporary agency work has increased but is still less than 2% of all employed/s-e Successive periods of fixed-term employment - a topical issue in Sweden as well Considerable lower union density among temporarily employed Fixed-term and part-time work - differences on the basis of socioeconomic status, gender, age and ethnicity The need of intersectional perspective

5 General trend in fixed-term employment * Blue-collar (black dots) and white collar (white dots) workers aged (%) Different trends in various forms of fixed-term emploment On occation and by the hour has increased 1% to 6% of the total employment 11% to 41% of temporary employment Other forms have decreased (especially substitutes and project employment) or remained stable (seasonal and probationary emloyment).

6 Fixed-term employed (%) AKU, Statistics Sweden Women (dark grey), men (light grey)* blue collar white collar total Swedish-born and foreign-born ** Statistics Sweden, 2015

7 Part-time employment (% of all employed) AKU, Statistics Sweden* Black line blue-collar Grey line white collar total Dark grey woman, Light grey - men Blue-collar White collar Total

8 Self-employed Traditionally low share of S-E Stable share around 10% EU average rate 14% The Netherlands 16% False self-employment Road freight transport and construction Migrant workers A test case (2013) in road haulage Concerned a hauler with over 100 trucks but no employed driver Dependent self-employment a wider category of industries Lawyers, accountants, ICT workers Media, art and cultural workers Cleaners, care and welfare workers (Voluntary or involuntary arrangements from the workers perspective)

9 Policy measures against false self-employment and involuntary self-employment Trade unions work actively to curb this practice Swedish Transport Workers Union urges for the Dutch Model (Drivers who drive a transport company s trucks must be employed by the company) The social partners - joint programmes against undeclared work The Swedish Tax Agency special tax revisions of companies to curb misclassification of workers penalties for unpaid payroll tax and income tax The Government - Orderliness in the labour market Inter-agency cooperation against unhealthy competition Investigation on the effects of a liberalization of F-tax (business tax) Contractor responsibility (in the building and construction sector)

10 Other measures against non-standard employment (some examples) The social partners in the municipal and country council sectors Collective agreement in 2016 including a clause on full-time employment as the norm The Government Revision of the regulations on general fixed-term employment to prevent successive short-term contracts (2016) Inter-agency cooperation against unhealthy competition A sustainable working environment