Current areas of interest in the Swedish Labour Law

Epitome

The lecture will focus on two areas which are of current interest in Sweden right now. Firstly, the regulation of the Swedish Sickness Insurance system and Rehabilitation and secondly, the regulation about Order of selection for redundancy. These two subjects are the ones that German employers (German parent company with a Swedish subsidiary company) like best and dislikes most.

Due to the influence of the Europe 2020 strategy large changes have taken place in the Swedish Sickness Insurance system and early retirement pensions which also affect employment security. The goal is to fulfill an employment rate of 75 %. This had an impact on the working life in Sweden since many more elderly and disabled employees are now working. The changes have been politically controversial and neither employers nor the unions are particularly fond of them (German employer in general finds the regulations vague and indistinct).

The Swedish Employers in general dislike the regulation about Order of selection for redundancy. The unions are fond of them and the Symbolic value of their kind of employment protection is large and not even the conservative government that Sweden has had since 2006 has made any attempts to change them. In spite of this, the social partners have started to negotiate in accordance with the Swedish model. An agreement might well contain both a regulation about order of selection for redundancy and regulations about skills development that are required for employees maintained employability. Employability is another current subject of discussion in Sweden now (German employers in general like the present regulation of redundancy which they find simply, clear, easy to use and economic rational).

Curriculum Vitae

Dr Annamaria Westregard is Assistant Professor and Doctor of Labour Law at the School of Economics and Management at Lund University.

Her research interests are Personal Privacy and the Workplace, Drug testing and Rehabilitation. In recent years she has accomplished a project about rehabilitation and employment protection. Some years ago she was involved in a project together with researchers from Karolinska Institutet and evaluated a drug testing program run by the Swedish Armed Forces.

She has also worked as a Labour Lawyer at the former Swedish Employer´s Federation (now Confederation of Swedish Enterprise) in Stockholm and as a judge at the District Court of Malmö.