Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2022, published 111st ILC session (2023)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Sweden (Ratification: 1950)

Article 4 of the Convention. Promotion of collective bargaining. Legislative developments. Posting of workers. In its previous comment, the Committee requested the Government to provide information on the application in practice of the Posting of Workers Act (1999:678), in particular through statistics on collective agreements concluded with foreign employers and on foreign employers that became bound by collective agreements through membership of an employers’ organization.

The Committee notes the Government’s indication that there are neither public statistics on the number of collective agreements concluded by foreign employers for posted workers nor statistics on the number of foreign employers that became bound by collective agreements through membership of an employers’ organization but that, nevertheless, several recent reports show that the recent legislative developments concerning the posted workers have the intended effect in practice, notably in the construction sector. The Committee notes that the Government indicates in particular that: (i) according to a report from the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies focusing on posting of workers in the construction sector, both Swedish trade unions and employers’ organizations stated that posting employers voluntarily sign customary collective agreements, as opposed to posting collective agreements with limited legal effects, and that trade union representatives mentioned they have no difficulties identifying posting employers and to negotiate collective agreements for posted workers; and (ii) the Byggmarknadskommissionen, a commission conducted and funded by parties in the construction sector, analysed the existing legislative framework regarding posting workers and, after having given some consideration to the possibility to enforce a mechanism for the extension of collective agreements in the construction sector, the commission assessed that no amendments were needed to the existing regulatory framework for posted workers.

The Committee further notes that the Posting of Workers Act was amended three times during the reporting period. The Committee notes in particular that section 16, introduced in 2020, allows for trade unions to take industrial action to negotiate collective agreements for posted temporary agency workers. Welcoming the application of the Posting of Workers Act to posted temporary agency workers, the Committee requests the Government to continue providing information on the application in practice of this Act in the different sectors of the labour market and to provide any statistics in this regard.