In September 2005, a government-appointed commission proposed that Sweden's statutory parental leave period should be increased to 15 months, divided into five months for the mother, five months for the father and five months to be shared between the two. The proposal has met with considerable opposition, including from some employers and trade unions, and it is currently unclear if the government will propose legislation to implement the plan.
In April 2004 (SE0406102N), the government appointed a commission to examine the parental leave and benefits system from the perspective of whether it functions in the best way for children and contributes to greater equality between the sexes (Dir.2004:44). The commission was headed by Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson, a senior official at the Swedish Metalworkers' Union (Svenska Metallarbetareförbundet). The commission presented its proposals on 15 September 2005 (SOU 2005:73). It recommends increasing paid parental leave from the current 480 days to 15 months. This 15-month period should be divided into five (obligatory) months for the mother, five (obligatory) months for the father and five months that may be divided between the parents. All mothers would have the right to 30 days' leave before the child's birth. The parents could also take 30 days of leave together after the birth. The '3 x 5' months model is similar to a scheme that has been introduced in Iceland, where initial results are reportedly encouraging.
The Swedish parental leave system was established in 1974, replacing the former maternity leave scheme. The aim of the parental leave was that it should help women with small children to keep their connection with working life and give both parents the possibility of sharing responsibility for the care of their children. Parental leave benefits should also mean economic security for families with small children. In 1998, one month of the parental leave period was reserved for each parent, which could not be transferred to the other parent. In 2002, this reserved period - the 'mother's months' and 'father's months'- was increased to two months per parent.
Criticism
The commission's proposal for 15 months of parental leave, with a third of the period reserved for each parent, has met with criticism from both trade unions and employers. The proposal is not far-reaching enough, argued the secretary of the commission, Anna Thoursie, an economist at the Swedish Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisationen, LO), in a commentary in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper. She argued that that the proposal does not aim at strengthening women’s position in the labour market. The key point is that employers do not like people being absent, and a woman of child-bearing age is at greater risk of absence than a man. If both mothers and fathers have a fixed number of individual months of parental leave, the employers should have to adjust to the situation.
Within the Confederation of Professional Employees (Tjänstemännens Centralorganisation, TCO), opinions on the proposals vary. The overall view of most white-collar trade unions, represented by Sture Nordh, the chair of TCO, is that the choice of how much parental leave each parent should take should be voluntary, but that parents choosing to divide the leave in an equal way should be given some kind of reward. However, two TCO affiliates - the Civil Servants’ Union (Statstjänstemannaförbundet, ST) and the Salaried Employees Union (Handelstjänstemannaförbundet, HTF) - have advocated, in an article on the TCO website, an individual right to leave that cannot be transferred to the other party, and thus support the commission's proposal.
Voluntary or compulsory?
The board of LO has stated for some time that it generally supports a parental leave scheme with fixed quotas of leave for each parent, and thus finds the commission's proposal acceptable.
Both LO and TCO are quite close to the governing Social Democratic Party (Socialdemokratiska Arbetarepartiet, SAP). The issue of possible changes to the parental leave scheme seems sure to arise at the SAP congress at the end of October 2005. The SAP women's organisation and the Young Social Democrats (Socialdemokraternas Ungdomsförbund, SSU) are actively in favour of the commission's proposal, as are a majority of SAP district organisations.
The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv) believes that parental leave should in general be a matter for individual choice, with the sharing of the leave a result of a free choice between the parents.
The government is reported to be reluctant about the commission's proposal, believing that the Swedish people would not be in favour of a 'quota-based' and compulsory parental leave scheme. The parties on which the minority SAP government relies for parliamentary support - the Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) and the Green Party (Miljöpartiet de Gröna) - are in favour of the proposal. The Left Party goes one step further in calling for the 15 months of leave to be divided into two halves, with each parent taking 7.5 months. The opposition conservative/liberal parties would like individual solutions, with or without a reward for parents choosing to share leave equally.
At the time of writing, it is unclear whether the government will present a bill to parliament amending the current parental leave legislation.
Commentary
Since the 1970s, legislators have sought a parental leave scheme that operates in the best way for children and contributes to greater equality between the sexes. The changes in 1998 and 2002 that increased leave and reserved first one and then two months for each parent have resulted in an increased use of parental leave by the fathers. However, overall, young fathers in Sweden, as in many other countries, are currently quite reluctant to use the parental leave they are entitled to, for several reasons. Mothers use parental leave much more; for example, in 1974 the average proportion of parental leave used by fathers was zero, rising to 10% in 1995 and 17% in 2003 (ie mothers 83% used of all parental leave).
The commission proposal submitted in September 2005, like a number of other ideas in this area mooted in political circles, contains an element of compulsion that many Swedes object to. However, a free choice clashes with the wish of many working mothers to share equally parental responsibility with the father of young children. At the same time, many employers state that they do not want that their staff away from work for long periods - when recruiting, they are therefore more likely to choose a male worker over a female worker. To fight this attitude, many trade unions and left-wing political organisations of young people and women argue that the law should lay down that parental leave should be divided equally between the parents, and that the employers will have to adapt to this situation. (Annika Berg, Arbetslivsinstitutet)