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WORKING IN SWEDEN

KEY POINTS: Should foreign workers in Sweden join a union?

For many international workers in Sweden, joining a trade union might not be something that crosses your mind, especially if it's not common in your home country. Here are the benefits and key things to bear in mind when considering joining.

Published: 7 August 2019 13:25 CEST
Updated: 13 April 2023 08:01 CEST
KEY POINTS: Should foreign workers in Sweden join a union?
Which union, if any, should you join in Sweden? Here are The Local's best tips. Photo: Pontus Lundahl/TT

Sweden has one of the world’s most unionised workforces, with around 70 percent of workers a member.

You can choose to join a union that’s related specifically to your profession (for example, Lärarförbundet for teachers, Sveriges Ingenjörer for engineers) or one which covers a wider range. 

Swedish trade unions are grouped into three umbrella organisations: The Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) which is traditionally for blue-collar professionals; the Confederation for Professional Employees (TCO) traditionally for white-collar professionals; and the Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations (Saco).

One reason some people join a union is the belief that this gives workers more power to organise and gain better conditions as a group, but there are also some benefits for individual members. These are some of the most common ones, which might well be a factor in whether you choose to join a union and which one you pick if so.

Help in your current employment

The function of trade unions that most people will be familiar with is their role as mediator in any disputes or negotiations between you as an employee and your employer.

In cases of termination or dismissal (the two different ways you can lose your job in Sweden), you are entitled to consultations with your union, while in cases of redundancy, employers are supposed to carry out and complete consultations with the union before giving an employee their notice. If unfair dismissal is suspected, your union will usually negotiate for you and take the employer to labour court if needed.

READ ALSO: Six top tips for job seekers in Sweden

Help with career development

Many unions offer information on salary statistics within your industry, giving you concrete data on the market rate to work with when you next have a pay negotiation.

Other help is also often available, such as CV reviews and career coaching, although this is often only available in Swedish. And you may also be entitled for financial support to cover the costs of job-related training and materials.

Unions also often offer talks and courses free of charge for their members. Again, these will mostly be held in Swedish, so if you’re not comfortable with the language yet, it’s a good idea to contact any union you’re considering joining to ask what professional development is available in English.

Financial support

It’s not just the cost of training that might be covered by your union.

It’s often possible to get a discount on a mortgage or other loan if you’re a union member; this is because the banks see you as a safer bet, partly due to the income insurance which we’ll explain later.

Other offers might include discounts with certain travel partners (hotels, train companies, and sommarstugor), online courses, insurance policies (such as home, travel or gadget insurance, since income insurance typically comes included anyway), health and fitness (gyms or even spas), leisure items (books) and so on.

READ ALSO: Everything you need to know about annual leave in Sweden

Kollektivavtal

Collective bargaining agreements, known as kollektivavtal in Swedish, are a set of working agreements which are agreed between employers and union representatives.

They usually regulate wages (for example by setting pay bands for different titles or responsibilities), working conditions (including maximum hours per week, overtime for hours outside your typical working week, and more), holiday (many offer an extra week of paid holiday on top of the five weeks annually which is the legal minimum, and some agreements offer another extra week’s holiday for over-40s), and other perks which could range from pension agreements to policies regarding sabbaticals.

Because of all these possible benefits, and the fact that you as an individual employee don’t need to negotiate for them yourself, workplaces that offer kollektivavtal are seen as highly attractive to workers in Sweden. 

But the key thing to know here is that you don’t need to be a union member to be covered by one, and even if you are a union member, the kollektivavtal may not apply. You’re only covered by kollektivavtal if the employer chooses to recognise a certain union. When a kollektivavtal applies, it applies to all members regardless of any union affiliation.

It is worth noting that Sweden’s labour laws are relatively generous, so even if you are not a member of a union, you do still enjoy quite a lot of rights as an employee.

A-kassa

If you lose your job, in Sweden you’re entitled to unemployment insurance (arbetslöshetsförsäkring), which is around 350 kronor per day, working out to around 8,000 kronor per month before tax. Many workers in Sweden are also members of unemployment funds, called arbetslöshetskassa or a-kassa, which means you pay a monthly fee and, if you become unemployed after at least one full year of a-kassa membership, you’re entitled to a higher amount of unemployment insurance.

The amount is usually salary-based, typically 80 percent of your former salary, but there is often a salary cap (so that even if you earned over that amount, you won’t receive extra unemployment insurance). It’s also often possible to pay in extra money to a-kassa, which would entitle you to a higher amount of insurance in the event of unemployment. 

All of the funds except one (Alfa-kassan) are linked to unions, but you don’t need to be a member of a union to join an unemployment fund, and can even join one that’s linked to a different union than the union you are a member of, as long as you meet the requirements. 

When it comes to choosing an a-kassa, you should check the eligibility requirements and compare the costs (typically around 150 kronor per month, sometimes varying based on salary), and how much they would pay out in the event of unemployment, paying attention to any salary caps or time limits.

Costs and applying

Membership varies between the unions, and there are often different rates for different salaries, and there are usually reductions for students or members who become unemployed.

If you’re eligible for more than one union, for example if you belong to a profession like teaching, which has two dedicated unions, or if you’re choosing between an industry-specific union and a more general one, you should weigh up not only the costs but also how much value you think you’d get from each option.

That’s particularly important if one union offers perks you’re certain to use, such as study scholarships or lower rates on mortgages, and if that doesn’t apply, you might take into account how relevant the training and career advice sounds. 

You can apply online via the union’s website, or contact them directly for any specific questions.

READ ALSO: 10 things Sweden should do to make life better for international talent

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For members

WORKING IN SWEDEN

Half of those blocked by Sweden’s work permit salary threshold will be graduates

A new analysis by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise has found that 51 percent of the labour migrants likely to be blocked by a new higher salary threshold will be graduates. Karin Johansson, the organisation's Deputy Director General, told The Local how this will hurt businesses.

Published: 22 April 2024 14:21 CEST
Half of those blocked by Sweden's work permit salary threshold will be graduates

When Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard received the results of a government inquiry into setting the median salary as the threshold for new work permits, she said that highly qualified foreign workers would not be affected. 

“This is an important step in our work to tighten requirements for low-qualified labour migrants and at the same time to liberalise and improve the rules for highly qualified labour migration,” she said. “Sweden should be an attractive country for highly qualified workers.” 

But according to the confederation’s new analysis, published last week, graduates will in fact make up the majority of those blocked from coming to Sweden, if the government increases the minimum salary to be eligible for a work permit to 34,200 kronor a month from the 27,400 kronor a month threshold which came into force last November. 

“The politicians’ argument does not hold up,” Johansson told The Local. “More than 50 percent of those who have this kind of salary are skilled workers with a graduate background. These are the people that that the government has said that they really want to have in Sweden. So we are a little bit surprised that they are still going to implement this higher salary threshold.” 

Of those earning between 80 percent of the median salary (27,360 kronor) and the median salary (34,200 kronor), the study found that 30 percent were working in jobs that required “extended, university-level competence”, and a further 21 percent in jobs requiring “university-level education or higher”. 

“They are technicians and engineers, and many of the others are also really skilled workers that are hard to find on the Swedish labour market at the moment,” Johansson said. 

The proposals made by inquiry were put out for consultation in February, with the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise planning to submit its response later this week. 

Johansson said that further raising the threshold risked exacerbating the serious labour shortage already suffered by Swedish companies. 

"In our recruitment survey, we have discovered that 30 percent of all planned hires never get made because companies cannot find the right people," she said. "Many companies are simply having to say 'no' to businesses. They can't expand. So, of course, it will have an impact on the Swedish economy if they now increase the salary threshold. We know that there will be fewer people coming from abroad to work in Sweden." 

Johansson said she had little faith in the exemption system proposed by the inquiry, under which the the Swedish Public Employment Service will draw up a list of proposed job descriptions or professions to be exempted, with the Migration Agency then vetting the list before sending it on to the government for a final decision. 

"The decision of who will be exempted will be in some way a political one, and in our experience, it's the companies that know best what kind of people they need," she said. "So we are not in favour of that kind of solution. But, of course, it's better than nothing." 

She said that companies were already starting to lobby politicians to ensure that the skills and professions they need to source internationally will be on the list of exemptions, a lobbying effort she predicted would get only more intense if and when the new higher salary requirement comes into force next June.  

"If you have a regulation, not every company can have an exemption. You need to say 'no' sometimes, and that will be hard for companies to accept," she predicted. "And then they will lobby against the government, so it will be messy. Certainly, it will be messy." 

Although there are as yet no statistics showing the impact of raising the minimum salary for a work permit to 80 percent of the median salary last November, Johansson said that her members were already reporting that some of their foreign employees were not having their work permits renewed. 

"What we are hearing is that many of the contracts companies have with labour from third countries have not been prolonged and the workers have left," she said. 

Rather than hiring replacements in Sweden, as the government has hoped, many companies were instead reducing the scale of their operations, she said. 

"The final solution is to say 'no' to business and many companies are doing that," she said. "If you take restaurants, for example, you might have noticed that many have shortened their opening hours, they have changed the menus so it's easier with fewer people in the kitchen. And also shops, the service sector, they have fewer staff."

To give a specific example, she said that Woolpower, a company based in Östersund that makes thermal underwear, supplying the Swedish Armed Forces, had been struggling to recruit internationally. 

"They have seamstresses from more than 20 different countries and it's more or less impossible to find a seamstress in Sweden today," she said. "It's really hard for them to manage the situation at the moment and they are a huge supplier to Swedish defence." 

She said that the new restrictions on hiring internationally were also forcing existing employees and also company owners to work harder.  

"Current employees need to work longer hours than they have done and if you're a small business, you, as an owner, will work more than you have done before," she said. 

The best solution, she said, would be to abolish the salary thresholds and return to Sweden's former work permit system, which required that international hires receive the salary and other benefits required under collective bargaining agreements with unions. 

But she said that the government's reliance on the support of the Sweden Democrats party, enshrined in the Tidö Agreement, meant this was unlikely to happen. 

"This is the result of the Tidö Agreement, and you if you take away one single piece of this agreement, I think maybe everything will fall apart. So I think it's hard. When we discuss this with the different parties, they all agree that they want to push ahead with it. But it's the Sweden Democrats who put this on the table when they made their agreement." 

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