On 10 April 2003, Jörgen Lindegaard, the chief executive of Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), presented a new cost savings programme, aimed at ensuring the airline's profitability and long-term competitiveness, as part of a major restructuring process which is already underway. The company aims to
A general elections was held in September 2002, resulting in the return to power of the minority Social Democratic Party (Socialdemokratiska Arbetarepartiet, SAP) administration, which will continue to operate with the support of the Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) and the Green Party (Miljöpartiet de
The trade unions affiliated to the Swedish Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisationen, LO) continued to lose members in 2002, according to figures published in March 2003. At the end of 2002, LO had a total membership of 1,918,800 (54% men and 47% women), a fall of 27,728 members, or 1.4%
At the beginning of December 2002, the Labour Court (Arbetsdomstolen, AD) issued its judgment (AD nr 128/02) in the first case relating to discrimination on ethnic grounds brought since a new Act on Measures against Ethnic Discrimination in Working Life (1999:130) came into force in 1999 (SE9903148F
A new collective agreement on pay for about 10,000 blue-collar workers in the temporary agency work sector was signed on 11 December 2002, by the Swedish Service Employers' Association (Tjänsteföretagens Arbetsgivarförbund) and trade unions affiliated to the Swedish Trade Union Confederation
On 6 February 2003, Åsa Löfström, associate professor at the Department of Economics of Umeå University, was appointed as a commissioner by the government to examine the reasons why gender segregation - ie women and men being largely confined to particular jobs and sectors - is still so strong on
In January 2003, the latest statistics from the National Mediation Office (Medlingsinstitutet, MI) (SE0105195F [1]) on industrial conflicts during 2002 highlighted the current low level of industrial action in Sweden. Relatively few lock-outs or legal or illegal strikes occur at present. The only
On 22 January 2003, the Labour Court (Arbetsdomstolen) delivered its judgment (/Dom nr 6/03/) in a case brought by a retired government official against her former employer, the state. The case concerned the interpretation of a clause in the government sector collective agreement on supplementary
On 21 January 2003, Hans Karlsson, the Minister for Working Life, presented a series of proposals in line with the 11-point programme for 'improved health in working life' issued by the government in November 2001 (SE0111108F [1]) against a background of high levels of sickness absence (SE0301103N
In November 2002, the number of people receiving some kind of remuneration from the government sickness insurance scheme was 6,000 lower than in November 2001 - a decrease of 1.7% - according to statistics issued by the National Insurance Board (Riksförsäkringsverket, RFV) on 20 December 2002