A Government Commissioner handed over a proposal for new Swedish legislation concerning the right to full-time employment, valid for the whole labour market, 30 November 2005.
30 November 2005 the Commissioner Gudmund Toijer handed over a proposal about a stronger right to full-time employment applying to the whole Swedish labour market ('Stärkt rätt till heltidsanställning', SOU: 2005:105) to the Working Life Minister Hans Karlsson. The most important provisions of the proposal is a right to full-time employment at new employment and a right for those being already part-time employed for three years or more.
The proposed Act will be mandatory in favour of the employee. It will however be possible for the social partners to agree on derogations from the provisions in the Act. A general exemption from the rules is made for employers with a maximum of ten employees.
When an employment contract is entered into, under the general rule it shall refer to full-time work. A general exemption will be made from the general rule corresponding to a seventh of the total number of employees with the employer. When the number of part-time employees with an employer is greater than the allowed limit, the employer may only enter into a further part-time employment contract when the parties to the contract agree on this, and law permits it. In that situation exceptions may be made if the employee is to carry out work for another employer in parallel with the new job, if the part-time job is a substitute position or if a full-time job does not reflect any need for a job that the employee has sufficient qualifications for. Exceptions from the general rule may also be made if the employee expresses a desire that the employment should be a part-time job.
The right for a part-time employee to become full-time employed applies to the work unit, where the part-time employee is employed. The part-time employee must notice the employer of his/her wish to receive a full-time employment will also be a condition. Condition number two is that the concerned employee has been part-time employed at least three years in the last five years and, condition number three, that the full-time employment means a need of labour with the employer that the employee has the qualifications for.
Critical comments as to the new proposal arrived quickly in the press and in official press announcements after the presentation. The Working Life Minister Hans Karlsson does not want to exempt the small companies with less than ten employees from the general rules. The private employer head organization the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv) means that employment should decrease under the proposed law and that the proposal was an infringement in the general right for the employers to direct work. The Swedish Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisationen, LO) finds the proposal to weak and containing too many exceptions. The Swedish Association of Graduated Professionals (Sveriges Akademikers Centralförbund, SACO) opposes fully the proposal meaning that current problems can be solved in collective bargaining.
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