Do public sector industrial relations challenge the Swedish model?

Thörnquist, Annette; Thörnqvist, Christer

doi:10.1080/0023656x.2017.1375597

Cited by 6 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…When the elder-care reform was implemented in the 1990s, many workers who previously had worked under the country councils expressed the need for workwear. 7 Economic downturn and austerity measures in the welfare sector, however, made it difficult for Kommmunal to pursue work environment demands, as well as wage demands (Thörnquist and Thörnqvist, 2018). By contrast, the effects of the global financial crisis in 2008-2009 on the Swedish public sector were limited (Schmidt et al, 2018).…”

Section: Tackling the Issue Of Workwearmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trade union struggle for workwear in Swedish elder care

Thörnquist

2021

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research

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This article investigates why it took over 20 years of trade union struggle before workers in Swedish elder care were granted the right to free workwear. How did the Swedish Municipal Workers’ Union (Kommunal) tackle the problem; what obstacles did the union face; and why was the matter finally regulated by the state (in 2015 and 2018) and not by collective agreement in line with the Swedish model of self-regulation? The study draws mainly on an analysis of important court cases. The results indicate that the process was protracted mainly because of the unclear legal basis for pursuing demands concerning workwear, municipalities’ (local authorities’) opposition to a general obligation to provide workwear, mainly for financial reasons, and the fact that the issue was deadlocked between the remits of two government authorities, representing patient safety and work safety respectively. The main reason why the union eventually preferred to fight for a legislative solution was that a negotiated solution would probably have come at the expense of other urgent union demands in this female-dominated low-wage sector. When Kommunal intensified the struggle for free workwear in the 2010s, the union also stepped up its struggle against the structural gender differences in wages in the municipal sector.

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Section: Tackling the Issue Of Workwearmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trade union struggle for workwear in Swedish elder care

Thörnquist

2021

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research

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“…In the wake of the financial crisis in the early 1990s and the subsequent restructuring and downsizing of the public sector, mass lay-offs occurred for the first time in this sector (Thörnquist and Thörnqvist, 2018). Because of marketization and sub-contracting, various forms of atypical employment, such as fixed-term and part-time employment, as well as stand-by arrangements have become a growing problem as well.…”

Section: Swedenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although unions in Sweden still are comparatively powerful, their overall power resources are thus threatened by internal frictions; the public sector unions claim that their members get less 'real' remuneration compared to the export industries. This was the main reason why Kommunal decided to withdraw from the coordinated wage bargaining round within the LO in 2015 (Thörnquist and Thörnqvist, 2018). However, public support has become an increasingly important power resource for unions in the public sector, which has been obvious especially in labour conflicts.…”

Section: Swedenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Austerity and public sector trade union power: Before and after the crisis

Schmidt

Müller

Ramos-Vielba

et al. 2018

European Journal of Industrial Relations

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We use a power resources approach to examine the effects of the 2008–2009 financial and economic crisis on public sector trade union power in Germany, Spain, Sweden and the UK, comparing structural, organizational, institutional, societal and political power resources before and after the crisis. Unions’ power resources have (at least temporarily) weakened in Spain, with a similar but less pronounced trend in the UK; whereas in Sweden and Germany, one can detect ambiguous but slightly positive signals, which reflect neither the crisis nor opposition to austerity. As well as structural, organizational and institutional power resources, societal and political resources are decisive for public sector trade unions.

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“…It has been argued that Swedish industrial relations have become increasingly decentralized and ‘neoliberalised’, especially regarding wage determination (Baccaro and Howell 2017; Lapidus 2015; Thörnqvist 2007; Thörnquist and Thörnqvist 2017). This argument seems to contradict the depiction of Swedish collective bargaining institution as relatively stable, with the main change being the decentralization of the level of bargaining from central to sectoral in the 1980s and 1990s (Eurofound 2015; cf.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We find it to be a reasonable argument, that an overly strong focus on ‘forms’ tends to overlook ‘disjunctures’ between form and function, and structures and practices performed (Baccaro and Howell 2017: 14f.). There are certain tendencies toward neoliberalization through an increase in employer discretion and the corresponding loss of trade union influence on wage‐setting as performance‐based individual and differentiated wage‐setting has expanded in Sweden (Bengtsson and Berglund 2012; Fransson and Stüber 2016; Granqvist and Regnér 2007; Thörnquist and Thörnqvist 2017; Waddington et al . 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Under the Surface of Individual and Differentiated Pay in Sweden: A Zero‐Sum Game of Performance‐Based Pay?

Eriksson

Larsson

Adolfsson

2020

Brit J Industrial Rel

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Wage formation in Sweden has been decentralized, and the introduction of individual performance-based pay has increased employer discretion. This article explores practices of local-level wage determination and argues that existing analyses still have too much focus on the formal (regulatory) institutions toexplain what that is going on under the surface. Drawing on interviews with HR, managers, employees and union representatives from both public and private sector organizations, the study concludes that individual and differentiated wagesetting is delimited locally by small budgets and the actors' cultural-cognitive and normative expectations. Even though there have been radical changes in collective agreements and policies, we find strong elements of path dependency in local wage determination practices.

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Do public sector industrial relations challenge the Swedish model?

Cited by 6 publications

References 7 publications

Trade union struggle for workwear in Swedish elder care

Trade union struggle for workwear in Swedish elder care

Austerity and public sector trade union power: Before and after the crisis

Under the Surface of Individual and Differentiated Pay in Sweden: A Zero‐Sum Game of Performance‐Based Pay?

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