Swedish Labour Research Articles

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Navigating Duty and Rights - A Relational Ethnography of Work-First Hegemony in Municipal Service Centres in the Urban PeripheryThe "work-first approach" (arbetslinjen) is a fundamental concept in Swedish welfare policy, shaping both progressive and regressive policy agendas. In contemporary political discourse, marginalised communities have become the focus of initiatives aimed at reinforcing the work-first approach among the unemployed through increased conditionalities. Consequently, the work-first approach has become a site of struggle over the direction of Swedish labour market and welfare policies. This article aims to analyse how the work-first approach is realised as a hegemonic practice within municipal service centres located in marginalised communities. Based on a relational ethnographic approach, we examine how the work-first approach is realised in daily interactions between residents and community guides, as people navigate administrative activation measures, experience hyper-exploitation, and manage life on the margins of poverty. Our findings highlight the fluid nature of the work-first approach, demonstrating how it is both reproduced and contested across different social contexts. We argue that the work-first approach, as a hegemonic idea, faces a significant challenge: increasing social conflict and coercion within the welfare system and labour market are undermining the active consent of marginalised groups—a consent critical for maintaining the work-first approach as a dominant framework in Swedish policy.

Organizing Integration in the Swedish Labor and Housing Markets

Organizing Integration in the Swedish Labor and Housing Markets

Overqualification Among Second-Generation Children of Immigrants in the Swedish Labour Market

Research on the children of immigrants born in the host country (G2) consistently reveals disparities between their educational achievements and labour market outcomes compared to the majority population. This study provides new insights into understanding this disparity by examining patterns of overqualification—i.e., a downward educational mismatch—among the G2. Specifically, it explores 1) how overqualification patterns differ between the G2, foreign-born immigrants (G1), and the majority population and 2) how overqualification patterns vary across ten G2 ancestry groups compared to the majority population. Utilizing Swedish total population register data and linear probability models, this study estimates the probability of overqualification across different immigrant generations and ancestry groups, employing the Realised Matches method to measure overqualification. The results indicate that while G2 individuals have a lower probability of experiencing overqualification compared to G1, they face moderately higher probabilities of overqualification than the majority population—up to 19% higher. This disparity is particularly pronounced among G2 individuals with tertiary education and those of Iranian, Middle Eastern and North African, and Other Non-Western origins, with up to 39% higher probabilities. These findings suggest that G2 individuals, particularly those of non-Western origins, encounter significant challenges in translating their educational qualifications into commensurate employment within the Swedish labour market.

Sexual harassment leads to economic inequality

This study examines sexual and gender-based harassment by employees and managers in the Swedish labour market. Using data from the work Environment Survey, we show that women are subjected to this kind of harassment to a greater extent than men, but that both men and women are more vulnerable than the opposite sex when they are in the minority in their workplace. As wages are generally higher in male-dominated workplaces, this means that women are more vulnerable to harassment in workplaces with high wages, and men in workplaces with low wages. The study finds evidence that these patterns increase economic inequality in two ways. First, one survey experiment shows that harassment discourages women and men from seeking employment where their gender is in the minority. Secondly, an analysis of how people switch workplaces over time shows that harassment leads to women leaving relatively well-paid workplaces with a large proportion of men, in favour of lower-paid workplaces with fewer male colleagues.

Samhall Work Experience and Employability: A Field Experiment on Disability Discrimination in the Swedish Labor Market

Samhall Work Experience and Employability: A Field Experiment on Disability Discrimination in the Swedish Labor Market

Translation and initial cross-cultural adaptation of the tool for support-gradual return-to-work for persons with chronic musculoskeletal pain to the Swedish setting.

A well-defined and clear procedure is a key factor supporting return-to-work and enhancing collaboration and understanding between employers and employees. The adaptation of the Tool for Support-Gradual Return to Work, TS-GRTW, addresses relevant cultural aspects valuable for wider adoption. develop a Swedish version, the GRTWswe, for implementation and integration into the Swedish labor market's RTW process. This involved translating, culturally adapting, and assessing the appropriateness and utility. In the initial step, a double back translation was performed to create an initial translated version. This version was then utilized in individual consultations, accompanied by an agreement questionnaire. For the subsequent step, group consultations were held to refine and customize the tool to suit the Swedish context. Ten occupational therapists completed the questionnaires, with mean agreement scores surpassing three on a four-point scale. Out of these, nine participated in group consultations. The findings suggest the requirement for specific modifications to the GRTWswe. These adaptations are essential because of cultural differences in organizational structures and reference frameworks. Moreover, participants unanimously agreed to broaden the scope of target groups, encompassing employees without regard for diagnosis and expanding the range of professions that can utilize this tool. This step aims to enhance the tool's applicability and usefulness. The study found strong alignment between questionnaire responses and group consultations outcomes, affirming the adapted tool's suitability for use in a Swedish context. The tool benefits employers and employees by enhancing communication, encouraging collaboration, and structuring processes, promising lasting improvements to work conditions.

Scrutinising Polarisation: Patterns and Consequences of Occupational Transformation in the Swedish Labour Market

Scrutinising Polarisation: Patterns and Consequences of Occupational Transformation in the Swedish Labour Market

Knowledge Claims on Municipalities in the Swedish Labor Market Policy

Knowledge Claims on Municipalities in the Swedish Labor Market Policy

Dismantling Employeesʼ Power Resources in the Swedish Labour Market

Dismantling Employeesʼ Power Resources in the Swedish Labour Market

Trustworthy AI in the public sector: An empirical analysis of a Swedish labor market decision-support system

This paper investigates the deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Swedish Public Employment Service (PES), focusing on the concept of trustworthy AI in public decision-making. Despite Sweden's advanced digitalization efforts and the widespread application of AI in the public sector, our study reveals significant gaps between theoretical ambitions and practical outcomes, particularly in the context of AI's trustworthiness. We employ a robust theoretical framework comprising Institutional Theory, the Resource-Based View (RBV), and Ambidexterity Theory, to analyze the challenges and discrepancies in AI implementation within PES.Our analysis shows that while AI promises enhanced decision-making efficiency, the reality is marred by issues of transparency, interpretability, and stakeholder engagement. The opacity of the neural network used by the agency to assess jobseekers’ need for support and the lack of comprehensive technical understanding among PES management contribute to the challenges in achieving transparent and interpretable AI systems. Economic pressures for efficiency often overshadow the need for ethical considerations and stakeholder involvement, leading to decisions that may not be in the best interest of jobseekers.We propose recommendations for enhancing AI's trustworthiness in public services, emphasizing the importance of stakeholder engagement, particularly involving jobseekers in the decision-making process. Our study advocates for a more nuanced balance between the use of advanced AI technologies and the leveraging of internal resources such as skilled personnel and organizational knowledge. We also highlight the need for improved AI literacy among both management and personnel to effectively navigate AI's integration into public decision-making processes.Our findings contribute to the ongoing debate on trustworthy AI, offering a detailed case study that bridges the gap between theoretical exploration and practical application. By scrutinizing the AI implementation in the Swedish PES, we provide valuable insights and guidelines for other public sector organizations grappling with the integration of AI into their decision-making processes.

Migrants from Afghanistan on the Swedish Labour Market

Migrants from Afghanistan on the Swedish Labour Market

Case note on Swedish Labour Court case no. 33, 2023 (AD 2023:33)

This case note discusses Swedish Labour Court case No. 33 of 2023 (AD 2023:33). The case involved a fixed-term worker employed as a personal assistant under a specific form of fixed-term contract regulated by collective agreement. The trade union sought to have the employment contract converted into a contract of indefinite duration and the form of fixed-term employment used to be declared invalid. Furthermore, it requested that the court should seek a preliminary ruling on whether the specific situation and conditions of work in the case could be considered objective reasons in accordance with clause 5(1)(a) of the Fixed-Term Framework Agreement. The Swedish Labour Court decided that the Fixed-Term Work Directive was not applicable in the case and that there was no reason to ask for a preliminary ruling. This case note discusses the outcome of the case and the reasoning of the Swedish Labour Court of specific interest in relation to the Fixed-Term Work Directive.

Have low-paid jobs increased in the Swedish labor market? Defining low pay in the context of the Nordic model

Can the Nordic wage-setting model, where social partners decide wages through collective agreements, counteract a growing low-paid sector? This article tests four definitions of low-paid jobs to analyze whether this sector has grown for the period 2005–2020 in Sweden. Despite policy changes pointing towards growth, all definitions show a slight decrease in low-paid jobs over time. The authors argue that the industrial relations system, with the aim of keeping the industry wage increases in check to aid export competitiveness, also sets a uniform level wage that limits low-paid jobs. It is also found that low pay in the Swedish setting is partly a result of working less than full-time or having unstable employment, and service workers and those with low education are becoming increasingly common in this position.

Legal Activism in Swedish Labor Law

Legal Activism in Swedish Labor Law

Taylorism, Worker Resistance, and Industrial Relations in Sweden

AbstractThis article explores the influence of worker resistance to Taylorism on industrial relations in Sweden. By analysing archival material from workers at the Separator Corporate Group, the Metal Workers’ Union, and the Swedish Trade Union Confederation, this article highlights the interplay between shop floor activism, discussions within trade unions, and central labour market relations. It demonstrates how rank-and-file activism compelled union leadership and the central labour market organizations to adopt a series of agreements in the 1940s aimed at addressing worker resistance to Taylorism.Despite worker discontent, scientific management spread during the 1930s and 1940s. This eventually contributed to the Metal Strike of 1945, which had significant impact on labour–capital relations. According to the metal workers, scientific management, particularly time-motion studies, reduced their bargaining power by concealing labour processes and methods for wage determination, thereby allowing management a monopoly on knowledge.Following the strike, negotiations between the Trade Union Confederation and the Swedish Employers’ Association resulted in the 1948 Work Studies Agreement. This agreement provided a platform for resolving conflicts and encouraging workers’ support of rationalization via the Work Studies Council. Worker resistance consequently drove Swedish labour market centralization, inadvertently promoting closer labour–capital cooperation.This article argues, among other things, that although worker resistance failed to upend scientific management, it resulted in it being regulated within a corporatist framework. This highlights the important historical role local trade union activism has played in shaping labour market institutions and the broader political economy.

Mobilizing the Rights of Migrant Workers: Swedish Trade Unions’ Engagement with Law and the Courts

ABSTRACT Migrant workers, both regular and irregular, are at particular risk of having their rights violated. At the same time, there has been an absence of support for exploited immigrant workers from Swedish authorities and civil society. Lately, a number of trade unions and semi-union organisations in Sweden have developed methods to mobilize the rights of migrant workers experiencing exploitation on the Swedish labour market. This article investigates strategies utilized by trade unions to mobilize migrant workers’ rights by engaging with the law and the courts. It draws on qualitative interviews with trade union representatives and court judgements from the Labour Court and other civil courts. We identify legal practices that range from immediate legal assistance and everyday negotiations with employers to litigation in court. We show how the practical, aspirational, and creative engagement of a small group of trade union representatives with the law and courts has generated a new form for mobilizing the rights of migrant workers in the Swedish context. This form of legal mobilization is both instrumental and political, driven by the rhetoric of class struggle and a belief in the rights of migrant workers.

Gendered ethnic discrimination and the role of recruiter gender. A field experiment

Relying on data from a large-scale field experiment in Sweden, this article studies discrimination in recruitment on the basis of gender and ethnicity combined with recruiter gender. The study includes 5641 job applications sent in response to advertised vacancies, and the employer callbacks to these. Gender and either a Swedish or a foreign-sounding name were randomly assigned to the applications, and recruiter gender was documented whenever available. Based on the callback rates, there is evidence of ethnic discrimination against foreign-named job applicants by both male and female recruiters. Also, male applicants with foreign-sounding names are discriminated more than female applicants with foreign-sounding names. Thus, the results show gendered ethnic discrimination in the Swedish labor market, and this does not appear to depend on recruiter gender in general. However, the patterns for gendered ethnic discrimination by recruiter gender vary across occupational categories.

Filling in the blanks: How does information about the Swedish EITC affect labour supply?

We investigate the role of information about tax incentives for the labour–leisure choice. We randomize 37,000 leaflets about the Swedish EITC, and then study the effects with pre-registered analyses and administrative data. Our focus is on the household decision to allocate between labour income and parental leave payments. The EITC and its interactions with the parental leave system is not well-known. Despite the substantial incentives involved, and the flexibility with which a person may earn labour income, we find that information about the EITC has a precisely estimated zero impact on labour supply on the extensive and the intensive margin.

Autonomous regulation of work in the gig economy: The first collective bargaining agreement for riders in Sweden

The gigification of work has—in line with global trends—reached the highly-regulated Swedish labour market, with its high degree of both union density and coverage of collective bargaining agreements—and high labour costs. More and more gig workers are becoming union members, and in late January 2021 the first Swedish collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for food delivery platform workers (riders) was concluded between the Transport Workers’ Union and Foodora. The article illustrates to what extent, and how, the inherited formulas for trade union activity and collective bargaining are made relevant for platform-mediated work. The role of old actors and regulatory means are put to use in the ‘new’ labour market. This article provides an analysis of the first CBA in the Swedish gig economy and illustrates how pre-existing labour law norms are both a restraining and an enabling factor for trade unions and collective bargaining in the gig economy. What can be learned about the nature of work in the gig economy or platform-mediated work from the way it has been integrated into the Swedish model for labour relations with its particular traits? Or, what can be learned from the first CBA in the gig economy in the promised land of collective bargaining?

Rule of Law Discourses in Swedish Labour Law

Rule of Law Discourses in Swedish Labour Law