Fixed-Term-at-Will: The New Regulation of Fixed-term Work in Sweden

Abstract

Abstract: Since 1 July 2007, Swedish employers have no longer been required to provide an objective reason, such as the special nature of the work or a temporary peak in their business, when they hire someone on a fixed-term rather than an open-ended contract. The long list of different types of fixed-term contracts in the Employment Protection Act has been shortened, and a radical new type – fixed-term-at-will – has been introduced. Fixed-term-at-will marks a departure from earlier attempts to rein in fixed-term work by only allowing it when justified by some inherent characteristic of the work itself. Instead, the abuse of consecutive fixed-term contracts is to be prevented by time limits. An employee can work on fixed-term-at-will contracts for the same employer for up to two years during a five-year period. Through generous possibilities to combine fixed-term-at-will with the other remaining types of temporary contracts, substitute work and seasonal work, Sweden will have virtually no statutory protection against the abuse of successive temporary contracts. In the light of the ECJ’s Adeneler judgment, it must therefore be questioned whether the Swedish regulation complies with directive 1999/70/EC.