The future of the swedish model

LO's (the social democratic party pretending to be the labour union) Contract Secretary Torbjörn Johansson, Confederation of Swedish Enterprise Vice President Mattas Dahl and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Photo: Kenzo Tribouillard/Anders Wiklund/TT, Sören Andersson

The power of the social democratic party, which is the same entity as the labour union, is threatened by the EU minimum wages. How to explain that over 50% of Swedish workers will get a pay rise if the EU minimum wages become law.

They talk about the soul of the Swedish model, which is noting but the power of the social democratic party. Since they control all media, the union the science and the curriculum of the schools it is possible to keep lying for the people. But now there is an obvious risk that the lie will be revealed.

I have translated an article published in the propaganda organ “Tidningen Näringslivet”. Be my guest to read and enjoy!

The future of the Swedish model will now be decided

Right now, the EU is negotiating the minimum wage, with a charged European Parliament that wants to stop the Framework of the Council of Ministers. "Here and now, we are confident that the government has left the message that it is the council's position that applies," says Mattias Dahl, Vice President of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, about the struggle that concerns the soul of the Swedish model: the independence of the social partners.

The threats to the Swedish model have been discussed for decades. But then it has been about issues that we can influence in Sweden, such as an increasingly weaker organizational level on the LO side. For a few years now, the threat has come from outside, from the EU.

When Ursula von der Leyen launched a charm offensive in 2019 to promote the European Parliament in her campaign to become President of the European Commission, she stated that every citizen working full-time should earn at least the equivalent of a minimum wage. The directive would be implemented within 100 days of the new European Commission taking office, she promised.

That has not been the case. Nevertheless, her plans remain, which have led the Swedish social democratic partners to protest in unison.

Ursula von der Leyen's headache is that a small country in northern Europe, with its very own model in the labour market, has vigorously put its foot down. (Perhaps the iron heel : my comment) Sweden (also Denmark is among the opponents) has stressed that the plans are a difficult intervention in the Swedish model.

And the Swedish unions are as critical as the employers. In the days before the Christmas holidays last year, lo decided to cut the membership fee to the European Union, which is pushing the issue of a directive harder than any other organisation in the EU.

Torbjörn Johansson, contract secretary at lo, cannot understand why Sweden should accept deterioration just because workers in other parts of the EU, especially in Eastern Europe, must be better off:

"We have a model that works well, so why should we accept this? It's as if we would force all Swedes to eat penicillin forever just because we have a lot of colds in Malmö," he said during a seminar arranged by “Arena Idé”.

"We should be able to withstand what the Council has presented, but if you start negotiating away that position, we get worried pretty soon."

The Swedish government has hooked arms with unions and employers. Employment Minister Eva Nordmark (S) has pushed to scrap the plans, but the government nevertheless chose in December to support the Council of Ministers' compromise proposal. At the moment, it is being railed against the Radical Proposals of the European Parliament in the ongoing negotiations.

The Council of Ministers' proposal is precisely a framework, which makes it easier to accept for the Swedish partners in the labour market.

"We should be able to withstand what the council has presented, but if you start negotiating away that position, we get worried pretty soon," Johansson said.

Mattias Dahl emphasises how important it is that Sweden does not deviate from the Council's proposal.

"It's both difficult and easy. Difficult because it is important to hold on, but easy because there is not much to talk about, he says and at the same time emphasizes that he is safe with the Swedish stance:

"Here and now, we are confident that the government has given the message that it is the council's position that applies – then we do not need to implement the directive in Sweden. If it turns out to be wrong, we'll have to look at it.

In the last round of negotiations, article 4 was sensitive to Sweden. It concerns when the legislator must act to bring up collective bargaining coverage in the country. But according to Agence Europe, the negotiations did not lead to any results.

The Court's assessment

Given how far the process has gone, it is difficult to see that Sweden can be outside any kind of directive on minimum wages, even if it will be significantly weaker in its content than the European Commission originally announced, according to Carl von Scheele, who has written the report "EU directives on minimum wages – a threat to the Swedish model or to the EU?".

But how much will the European Parliament influence the final result? It is clear that Parliament has gone on the offensive. In countries where collective bargaining covers less than 80% of workers, 'active measures must be taken to promote this tool'. In the Original Proposal of the European Commission, the level is 70%, as set out in the above-mentioned Article 4.

But there are more concerns, and many relate to the articles of the European Commission's proposal. The biggest concern is how the European Court of Justice will then interpret the rules. That's when it's decided how badly the Swedish model gets.

It is difficult to trust the European Court of Justice. I would say it has such low reliability that it is a bike with punk on both wheels.

Confidence in the European Court of Justice's ability to make correct assessments is low among unions and employers in Sweden. In particular, the unions remember the battle over Lex Laval in 2007, which led to the Court of Justice of the European Union making it clear that the principles of the internal market take precedence over the right to conflict.

It is hard to trust the European Court of Justice. I would say it has such low reliability that it is a bike with punk on both wheels. You can't ride a bike on the, Torbjörn Johansson said at the seminar.

For example, the first article of the European Commission's proposal for a directive states that workers should be covered by minimum wage protection. What this means in practice may be decided by the European Court of Justice. If the outcome is that all employees are covered – which is the Swedish parties' interpretation – the Swedish collective agreement coverage of 90 percent is not enough, according to the parties.

Another concern concerns the dispute resolution. In Sweden, it is the unions that run disputes, not the individual, which is what applies in the European Commission's proposal. Here, too, a ruling in the Court of Justice can have enormous consequences for the Swedish model.

"I think we can never be sure what the European Court of Justice will use in the directive. The directive will be an unsafe weapon because the European Court of Justice is so unpredictable," petra Herzfeld Olsson, professor of law at Stockholm University, said during the seminar. She believes that most of it will be about damage minimisation, for example by clarifying in writings what applies in Sweden.

. (Be aware that professor is not an academic title, its an employments that is engaged by the government: my comment)

Difficult to understand Swedish conditions

In other countries, the expertise may have a different view than the Swedish experts. For example, lawyers such as Professor Catherine Barnard, from the University of Cambridge, and Professor Emanuele Menegatti, from the University of Bologna, argue that the European Commission has met Sweden on several points, but Birgitta Nyström, professor of law at Lund University, disagrees.

"If you look at the professors' views, they have completely different starting points. They do not see the Swedish concerns because they are based on the directive and the conditions they are aware of. They do not know how the Swedish model is constructed, she said during the seminar.

And even if it becomes a watered-down proposal that Sweden, and Swedish employers and unions, can at worst live with, it is nevertheless a deterioration, says Mattias Dahl.

"We in Sweden agree on our model. The Swedish model is a regulatory framework that is both written and unwritten. There is a historical context and a practice. We like it. The model is good, not perfect, but that's how we want to regulate issues in the labour market," he says.

"You can also put it this way: There is nothing in this that will develop the Swedish model. He warns that the minimum wage is only the beginning of an EU offensive that started with what is known as the social pillar.

"The government has been actively calling for the social pillar and now we get the answer in the form of binding legislation. Now we see it on the minimum wage issue. And there will be more questions later that hit the Swedish model.

With our Swedish trade union eyes, it is bordering on naïve to hear that the European Union wants to put the wage issues with the European Commission so badly.

Martin Linder, President of unionen and PTK, understands that there is a need to address the abuses in countries with widespread poverty. But in Sweden there is hardly any poverty, both unions and employers point out in this context. One percent of Swedish workers have wages below the EU poverty line or are at risk of poverty.

At the same time, European trade unions see an opportunity to strengthen the level of trade union organisation through the directive. In Central Europe, only 20% of workers are covered by collective agreements, for example. But it is completely the wrong way to go, according to both Martin Linder and Torbjörn Johansson. The responsibility to attract workers to organise themselves in trade unions is the task of unions. No one else's.

"The fact that the unions there think it's good is to give up the trade union idea of being able to influence their own lives and to mobilize the union force is for us directly harmful," johansson said.

"With our Swedish trade union eyes, it is bordering on naïve to hear that the European Union so badly wants to put the wage issues with the European Commission," Linder said.

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