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Explained: The labour law disagreement that could threaten to bring down Sweden’s government

Negotiations are once again underway over a set of Swedish hiring and firing laws, with the government hoping that an agreement with trade unions will help avoid a political crisis.

Published: 20 October 2020 13:45 CEST
Explained: The labour law disagreement that could threaten to bring down Sweden's government
Under discussion are a set of changes to Swedish rules around hiring and firing. Photo: Photo: Simon Paulin/imagebank.sweden.se

What's happening?

Discussions are underway this week to try to break a deadlock in talks between trade unions and employer organisations relating to Swedish labour law.

If no agreement can be reached, the Swedish government risks collapsing, with both the Left Party and right-of-centre opposition parties having said they are prepared for a vote of no confidence.

Any changes made to labour law, whether through agreement between trade unions and employers or directly by the government if that is not possible, will also have an impact on people working in Sweden and their rights.

What's up for discussion?

The law under review is the Employment Protection Act, called Lagen om anställningsskydd in Swedish and usually referred to simply as LAS.

One of the key principles is 'last in, first out' when it comes to redundancies. In other words, if a company needs to restructure or cut jobs, they should work from the principle that the most recently hired person is the first to go. There are exceptions, such as if that employee performs a key role that can't easily be done by someone else.


Photo: Melker Dahlstrand/imagebank.sweden.se

And why is it up for discussion?

After a very close election result in 2018, Sweden's Social Democrat-Green government had to make a deal (the January Agreement) with their former centre-right rivals the Centre and Liberal parties, in order to be able to govern.

This included an agreement to “modernise the Employment Protection Act to adapt to the present-day labour market while maintaining a basic balance between the actors in the labour market”.

As a result, the government ordered a review into the law, the results of which were shared in June. Two of the biggest proposed changes were that all companies would be allowed to exempt up to five employees from the 'last in, first out' rule during any round of layoffs, and it would not be possible for any dismissal from a small company (up to 15 employees) to be declared invalid.

The centre-right parties and organisations representing employers were largely satisfied with these proposals, while trade unions and left-of-centre parties, including the ruling Social Democrats, were critical.

What's happened since June?

Several rounds of talks, but no conclusive results after they have collapsed several times.

In October, the organisation PTK which represents white collar trade unions said it was satisfied with the proposals, but the blue collar union organisation LO remains unhappy with them. 

What happens next?

Under the terms of the January Agreement, if the different parties involved (mainly the trade unions and employers' organisations) are satisfied with the proposals, they will come into force from January 2021. If no agreement can be reached, it is down to the government to put forward proposals. 

Any changes to the labour law will affect the rights of people working in Sweden. There is also a lot at stake politically.

The Left Party is fiercely against the proposals in their current form, which it sees as a deterioration of worker protection. This is a core issue for the party, which has threatened a vote of no confidence in the government if it pushes ahead with the proposals. They would likely receive support from the right-of-centre opposition parties in any no-confidence vote, which would mean the government would have to resign or call a snap election.

However, the Left Party has traditionally sided with the Social Democrats, and will have a new leader by the end of October which may alter the stance it takes. 

 

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SWEDEN DEMOCRATS

REVEALED: Sweden Democrats’ secret social media ‘troll factory’

A Swedish reporter went undercover for a whole year to confirm the existence of a far-right troll factory, run by the Sweden Democrats to spread content of benefit to the party and degrade its political opponents.

Published: 7 May 2024 15:34 CEST
REVEALED: Sweden Democrats' secret social media 'troll factory'

In the Kalla Fakta programme for broadcaster TV4, a reporter spent five months working undercover for the Sweden Democrats, first on the YouTube channel Riks, previously owned by the party, and later for the party’s communications team.

“I was undercover for a whole year, five months of which I was working [for the party],” Kalla Fakta’s reporter Daniel Andersson told The Local. “Two of them I was on Riks, the YouTube channel, and three of them I was in the communications department.”

During this period, Andersson wore a hidden camera to show how the YouTube channel, which the party claims is independent, is in fact closely linked with the party.

Andersson said he found out about the troll factory just before moving over to the communications department.

“They are in the same office building, Riks rents their office from the Sweden Democrats, so during lunch the departments often met, ate lunch together and talked a lot about it. That’s where I overheard secretive talks about anonymous accounts on social media, and they didn’t want to say what their name was or why they had them.”

The Sweden Democrats are also Riks’ largest source of financing, with daily meetings taking place between the channel’s owner, Jacob Hagnell, and Sweden Democrat head of communications Joakim Wallerstein.

Kalla Fakta’s report revealed that the party’s communications wing has been tasked with managing a large number of anonymous social media accounts, referred to within the party as a “troll factory”, an organised group of fake accounts with the aim of influencing public opinion and debate by spreading pro-Sweden Democrat content.

“We’re going to talk a lot more about how they operate in the next episode, in a week,” Andersson said. “But what we saw very early was that it was very, very systematic, it’s organised. And the purpose is to create a huge load of posts on different social media to create an illusion of the fact that the Sweden Democrats and their image of the world and of Sweden is larger than it is.”

“The boss is Joakim Wallerstein, the communications chief of the Sweden Democrats. He’s also the mastermind behind this – we also identified Riks as a part of it, where he is creating a conservative ecosystem, troll factory, to manipulate people’s views of the world,” he added.

Back in 2022, the Sweden Democrats were accused of running a “troll factory” by left-wing newspaper Dagens ETC. At the time, the party rejected the accusations, calling ETC’s article “unserious and obvious activism” in an email to SVT, while admitting that a group called Battlefield, responsible for moderating the party’s comments boxes on social media, did exist at one point.

In the new Kalla Fakta programme and in another interview with Dagens ETC, Wallerstein admits that these anonymous accounts exist, although he rejects the term “troll factory”.

“I don’t think I’ve been running so called troll sites, for the simple reason that I haven’t been spreading false information,” he told Kalla Fakta.

Andersson believes this is nothing more than damage control from the party.

“He doesn’t want to acknowledge that it is a troll factory. He doesn’t see a problem with the fact that they are anonymous, or the fact that the connection to the party is hidden,” Andersson said.

By Paul O’Mahony and Becky Waterton

Hear TV4’s reporter Daniel Andersson explain more about the investigation in the next episode of The Local’s podcast, Sweden in Focus. Out on Friday, May 10th. 

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