Equal opportunities and collective bargaining in the European Union

A case study on Municipality from Sweden Phase III WP/97/79/EN EUROPEAN FOUNDATION for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions EUROPEAN FOUNDATION for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions Equal opportunities and collective bargaining in the European Union A case study on Municipality from Sweden Phase III by Anita Dahlberg Working Paper No.: WP/97/79/EN EUROPEAN FOUNDATION for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions Summary In the last two decades it appears that legislation rather than collective agreements has been the driving force behind equal opportunities measures in Swedish workplaces. Equal opportunities as a phenomenon is not a typical area for collective bargaining. On the contrary, from a historical point of view equal opportunities can be seen as a tripartite relationship between employers, female workers and male workers, where the parties to collective agreements, ie trade unions and employers, have not been gender neutral forces. The first section of the study briefly addresses different theories on this. Instead of researching the equal opportunities considerations in collective agreements and collective bargaining, this study focuses on planned, active work to promote equal opportunities and its relationship to legislation and official supervision. The second section considers the fact that active equal opportunities measures at workplaces are largely determined by the legal requirements which the Equal Opportunities Act places on Swedish employers rather than negotiated requirements, negotiations themselves and the results of negotiations between employers and trade unions. This study is concerned with equal opportunities measures in local government, in a municipality. If the case studies in the project are to be used as "good examples", it may be worth passing on and addressing the problems of the gap between, on one hand, the lack of willingness to act to change gender patterns and gender relations and, on the other, the desire for serious action to achieve greater equality between women and men in the workplace. In the municipality examined the main issue is unspectacular equal opportunities work involving successes and setbacks, rather than an idealized, "successful" example accompanied by corroborative illustrations. This case study is partly based on written sources, primarily decisions and the documents on which decisions were based. The principle of public access, which applies in the public sector, means that, in principle, all relevant documents are in the public domain. Another source used in this study was interviews and conversations with employees and politicians in the Municipality. Numerous discussions with, primarily, managers, ex anagers, politicians and -m union representatives on the difficulties inv